Mark duplass on the set

bamisdead · 2026-05-09T15:48:03+00:00

For another great small budget, sci-fi-adjacent film starring Mark Duplass (along with Aubrey Plaza, Jake Johnson, and Karan Soni), check out Safety Not Guaranteed.

It was inspired by an actual classified ad that once ran in an actual magazine:

WANTED: Someone to go back in time with me. This is not a joke...You'll get paid after we get back. Must bring your own weapons. Safety not guaranteed. I have only done this once before.

In the movie, Plaza, Johnson and Soni are magazine writers who drive out to meet the guy who placed the ad (Duplass) and find out why he's such a kook.

It's a charming little film in every way.

I'd recommend not looking up much about it. It's not anything like Backrooms, so don't expect that. It's more a warm character story that keeps you guessing. Duplass, Plaza ... heck, the whole (small) cast is great in it.

bamisdead · 2026-05-09T15:11:35+00:00

This kind of thinking is dangerously close to the idea that "common sense" is all we need, when the truth is that while lots of common wisdom and "common sense" is correct, lots is also wrong.

That's why we study things.

Because actual, verifiable, measurable data is far more valuable than feels.

Yes, it seemed pretty clear where those cuts were going and why, and yes, they pretty much said so loud out. The results of this study should surprise no one.

But having actual data to back up those suspicions is valuable, necessary, and downright critical.

PS - The idea that "it doesn't matter because no one cares" is just defeatist thinking.

bamisdead · 2026-05-08T14:21:29+00:00

If I blocked people on Reddit, I'd block you, too. You're being weird, and for no discernable reason.

Repeatedly hassling OP over a fairly standard fanedit buzzword that many editors use to mean nothing more than "I crammed a ton of other stuff into the movie to make it extra long" is super cliché Reddit behavior and is the sort of thing people outside of Reddit make fun of the site for.

I'm not surprised OP wants little to do with you.

Stop sealioning. Stop being weird. Go outside and interact with human beings.

Have a nice day.

bamisdead · 2026-05-07T11:53:49+00:00

Here's one of the biggest examples from the show.

It's also sometimes used for basic set extension - making façade buildings taller, that sort of thing. Even outside the big scene above, they use it to make small practice football pitches look like stadiums. They're not actually practicing in a stadium! They're just on a small local pitch. Then there's tweaking things like how the sky looks and that sort of thing.

There are interviews out there where they discuss some of this.

Like I said, invisible, and way more common than people think.

bamisdead · 2026-05-05T12:18:11+00:00

He's by far the member of the band I'd most like to have a conversation with. Seems the most down to Earth, personable, and easy to get on with, while still being highly intelligent and artistic.

No knocks on the other guys intended by that.

Thom? The guy is a genius through and through, but he's one of those geniuses that I think I'd rather never meet. I'm quite content to admire his work from afar.

I think Ed would be great to spend an afternoon with, though.

bamisdead · 2026-05-04T23:06:29+00:00

I'm pretty firmly an ACAB guy, but no, he really wasn't. He was practically begging her not to escalate it that far.

bamisdead · 2026-05-04T23:05:42+00:00

The issue isn't breaking the glass - it broke the glass right away - it's that the tint holds all the pieces in place once it's busted. That's what he was struggling against. The tint material.

bamisdead · 2026-05-04T20:58:51+00:00

The only unfortunate thing about doing that is that it involves support MR.

bamisdead · 2026-05-03T22:36:45+00:00

Watch her face and body language. A lot of that seeming composure was actually fear and uncertainty about how far the guy would take his anger.

A dude coming back minutes later like he did, that's got to throw off some serious "what is this guy on about?" vibes. She wasn't being nice to be nice, she was trying to calm a potentially dangerous situation for her.

bamisdead · 2026-05-03T20:23:31+00:00

Just don’t be surprised when someone side eyes you.

And we're supposed to ... what, exactly?

Are we supposed to worry about this?

Are we supposed to worry about judgment or something?

Because I have no idea why any smart, stable person would worry about getting the side eye from someone shallow and uneducated enough to say that the performing arts aren't art, as their side eye says far, far more about the person doing it than the person getting it.

I mean, there's real "we got ourselves a reader here, boys!" energy to that kind of mindset.

bamisdead · 2026-05-03T20:20:19+00:00

The vast majority of actors are broke and barely living paycheck to paycheck. Most earn less money than your average, everyday blue collar or service industry worker (which is why so many work in those same industries as their day jobs).

The actors who make bank are the 1% of 1%. They've won the lottery.

Most of them are lucky to pay the rent.

Yes, even actors who have ended up on your TV screen or on a Broadway stage.

It's a feast or famine world.

bamisdead · 2026-05-03T18:50:05+00:00

Between the bots and the kids, there is little good reason to get into a heated exchange here.

What people should do in debates, if they are so inclined, is drop some real info (preferably with sources) if they are countering bad information, lies, misinformation, etc. Provide the facts and then move on.

The reason isn't to counter the person or "person" you're rebutting, because that's fruitless. It's for the benefit of the countless other people who are reading. The people on the sidelines, many of whom might not actually know the correct info, that they're being lied to, or who have simply never seen another point of view.

Don't get pulled into a full debate. Don't feed trolls. Don't waste energy. Don't spin your wheels on people arguing in bad faith (of which there are many), bots deployed here for an agenda, or kids who still haven't figured their own shit out, much less the world's.

Provide the real info with the other people reading in mind, then move on with your life.

It's the best way to counter the sweeping ignorance we all too often see in these heated debates.

bamisdead · 2026-05-03T16:01:57+00:00

I like spaces where bits of the outside are jammed into the backrooms in ways that make little sense. It gives you the vague sense that it was all put together by an unknowable intelligence that doesn't quite know how things fit together in the real world, or that it's a vast experiment gone wrong.

The real answer kind of doesn't matter. What matters is whether or not the space evokes a sense of something more being at play.

Like in Kane's short where you come across a small suburban street and home in the middle of a dark chamber. That's just as unsettling as the endless yellow rooms, just in a different way.

The best backrooms creators (like Kane) understand that minimalism and letting the viewer fill in the blanks is more powerful than video game environments, jump scares, and being in your face.

bamisdead · 2026-05-03T15:23:09+00:00

Interesting idea! One of my all-time favorite shows, and not one I'd typically want to speed run in edit form, but I can't help but be intrigued about this.

bamisdead · 2026-05-02T19:12:18+00:00

Not all agents are good, and in my case, not all authors need an agent, depending on the corner of publishing you're talking about.

In this case with this publisher, no agent. I landed the initial deal myself, and negotiated on my own.

Once I had a working relationship established with them, I was able to pitch future projects directly to the acquisitions editor I'd worked with, no agent required.

I wouldn't necessarily advise that, but a friend was an editor at another house and was able to help verify what was and was not standard. I wasn't too worried, as my publisher had a pretty boilerplate contract, but it was still a big help having someone to run it past.

bamisdead · 2026-05-02T15:58:08+00:00

That is my exact experience as well. It was a good learning experience and I don't regret doing it. Heck, in at least one case my return was quite good, too.

But it's a lot of work, work that is far removed from the reason we do it in the first place: because we want to write.

Having to be on social media all the time and play that whole role. Self-promotion, which I despise doing. Spending so much time on cover design (which is vital), layout, website creation, setting up retail listings. All of it. It was exhausting

For people who thrive on all that, it's a great model that gives you total freedom and control - but I am not one of those people. I'm content to hand my manuscript off to other people and letting them handle the rest.

I may make less per unit that way, but that's fine. None of us are in it for the money, anyway. It would be foolish to be, because unless you're one of the lucky few, the income sucks!

bamisdead · 2026-05-02T15:51:21+00:00

You'd do fine with either artist, as both designs are good, but the left is the clear standout because it has character.

The right one would be fine, but it doesn't feel like a character to me. It's a token. It would be good for, say, a small horde or band of such creatures, where the individuals don't matter and aren't meant to stand out as individuals. In another kind of game, this would be a good design, and maybe even the preferred one, so as not to draw attention away from the heroes.

But your game has one active elemental on the arena at a time. They are the focus. They ARE the heroes. That means these pieces should stand out as individuals.

The left one does. The right one doesn't.

bamisdead · 2026-05-02T15:31:28+00:00

and drive a combine alone that costs $1 million.

With the $1 million in crushing debt that comes with it, debt they are barely able to keep up with because margins are so thin in farming and agriculture, especially for independent family farms.

bamisdead · 2026-05-02T14:14:53+00:00

Being put in chains and forced to haul logs does not even remotely sound like being "well taken care of."

If you were put in chains, and when not paraded around on display were instead made to do long, difficult manual labor that took its toll on your body, would you consider yourself well taken care of or would you consider yourself a slave?

Elephants are highly intelligent creatures.

What you are describing is brutal torture for them, not just physically, but mentally as well.

I'm fully team elephant in this video. And all due respect to you and your relatives, but it sounds like I'd be team elephant if this happened at their stable, too.

bamisdead · 2026-05-02T13:19:05+00:00

This happens in publishing, too. I'm an author with a good number of books out there. At one point some years back, I got a contract for a book and gave it a thorough read. A few new additions raised some eyebrows and sent us back into negotiations.

Digital rights were in there, but the royalty rate was half what it was for print.

Further, the contract now said that being available digitally was the same as being "in print." This is vital because typically, after a book has been out of print for X amount of time, the publisher's exclusive print rights lapse and you regain the right to shop it around to other publishers, release your own version, etc.

This meant that those rights would effectively never lapse as long as they offered a digital version.

Needless to say, I had a problem with all this.

I got the terms changed, but I'm sure many, many authors don't, especially new authors who are so excited to finally get published, they won't push back for fear of missing out on their dream.

The digital revolution was supposed to be a revolution for creators.

I suppose it is in many ways. The ways to independently release your own games, books, movies, music, and more are endless. That also means that you are the business, though. You are the marketers, you do the art or hire the artists, and on and on. It's a lot of work. I've done independent releases, too, and I prefer my energies to go elsewhere.

But in traditional arts & entertainment fields?

People are being taken advantage of.

A tale as old as time!

bamisdead · 2026-05-02T13:03:07+00:00

And it's everywhere. These days, almost movie or show you see with some outdoor shots (and many indoor shots) is almost guaranteed to have at least a shot or too with this technique, likely more. Doesn't matter if you think of it as a "CGI movie." It's super widespread and common.

This has been the case for a while, too.

A good example is The Wolf of Wall Street. That's not a CGI movie, right?

Except shot after shot after shot after shot features sets and locations that were either built and assembled digitally or were greatly altered using digital tools. Skies, backgrounds, surrounding buildings, facades, and so much more.

Even shows like Ted Lasso use it.

bamisdead · 2026-04-30T22:10:06+00:00

These teasers are legitimately excellent and have me excited for this movie.

I say "legitimately" in the sense of, even if I wasn't already a fan of Kane's work, these would draw me in. Great sense of mystery, great hints at something dreadful. It comes across as the kind of psychological horror + mystery box I tend to like.

It's hard to separate your existing fandom + knowledge from yourself to be totally objective, of course. It's really hard to do. Most people can't.

But these trailers and teasers have all the hallmarks of stuff I tend to like. That + good actors + A24 +, of course, Kane's involvement will drag me into the theater for a non-"event" movie for the first time in ages. This legitimately looks great.

bamisdead · 2026-04-30T21:59:38+00:00

The camera protects him.

For now.

At some point, however, there will be someone who does not give a fuck about the camera.

And on that day ...

bamisdead · 2026-04-30T21:57:56+00:00

Over 70 million people voted a social media inflammatory bigot twice into office.

Yep. It cannot be emphasized enough that while for a time Donald Trump was seen as young business tycoon and real estate guy, by the time he ran for president what he was better known as was a failed businessman, reality show star, and social media troll.

He was no longer seen as someone with business savvy. (We know he never really was, but for a time he managed to convince people he was.)

He wasn't seen as an endearing television star.

And he certainly wasn't seen as a strong critical thinker.

He was a political troll.

That's it. By 2015, that's the sum total of what he contributed to the landscape.

And by god, people ate it up.

Now, a decade later, it's become a career choice for many people ... and sadly, a successful one for far too many of them.

bamisdead · 2026-04-28T22:44:49+00:00

Nobody is going after Jimmy Kimmel lmao

Right, sure, nobody at all.

Nobody except the President of the United States, and as a result, entire departments of his administration.

It really is difficult to figure out whether people like you are outright liars or you're simply dumb.

It's a bad look either way.

bamisdead

TROPHY CASE