Director M217BS: True Art Looks Forward
Avander Promontory
((Performance Review - Highlight Reel Black Box, Deck 17, USPS Showrunner))
Corporate, lacking any innate artistic talent themselves, contented themselves with occasional ‘reviews’ of their directors. They were never fair, but at least most of the other directors he was pitted against today were demonstrably worse than M217BS. Whiny little snots complaining about sabotage and how everything wasn’t their fault.
They were directors for crying out loud, everything was their fault!
Still, he needed to present some sort of defense. That was part of the show.
M217BS: I can’t be expected to be recruitment officer, director, and actor trainer for all of you. Maybe if you had made appropriate stitches in time…
He probably should’ve done the same and requisitioned some more time. He had only gotten to do the single pilot before the actors he had recruited were stolen back. In the same time others had exploited his recruits to seven seasons and five movies of Real Matriarchs and Try Hard, to say nothing about the Meta Critiquery nominated 19-series run of Fearless. And yet he was summoned to this performance review with a batch of clearly inferior directors.
It was infuriating.
3X3CUT1V3: Audience, it is time to score the director.
PR1M4 D0NN4: T-that’s it?
B345T: Maybe stop trying to get your tentacles in everything, M217BS.
M217BS gave the upstart the appropriate glare.
PR3ST1G: At this point, there is no worth arguing.
3X3CUT1V3: Some know when to accept what is to come and do not struggle.
He nodded along. You didn’t survive dozens of these reviews by fighting the system.
M217BS: It is what it is.
Finally, the scoreboard updated with his results: M217BS - AUDIENCE
DISAPPROVAL: 30%
70% approval, not his best, not the worst. M217BS gave another shrug.
3X3CUT1V3: M217BS, the audience has decided. ::the human face twisted into a toothy grin that looked unnatural on the humanoid’s face:: As has N37W02K, for your dedication.
He gave a professional nod and turned to watch the next evaluation.
3X3CUT1V3: PR1M4 D0NN4, it is almost an offense to show the audience the animation disaster your team put out. Reused stock footage for previous shows, a cast you could not control…
PR1M4 D0NN4: I was carrying that show, the reused assets were not on the orders, someone cut corners on my crew while I was constructing the narrative, costumes, and correcting the errors that were emerging. Someone one staff had no idea what they were doing-
Again with the excuses.
M217BS’s eyes glossed over the retreaded animation scenes, then flicked up at a live-action “behind the scenes clip.” Some rogue actor was lurking amongst the scenery and set dressing.
PR1M4 D0NN4: Who is that!? I-I was sabotaged!!
Huh. Well look at that. There was something to her protestations after all.
The figure slashed some liquid on a device and ran, shouting an invective.
Ekko: Balus kren!!!
It was mildly more interesting than the actual show PR1M4 had been trying to produce.
3X3CUT1V3: At the time that you chose to enter your show and collude with the officers inside, who clearly, played you. Their ally was sabotaging you the entire time and your crew incompetent to stop the intrusion.
B345T: Ha! That’s great! ::breath:: Oh man…you suck.
PR3ST1G: Like recognises like.
It looked like his fellow directors weren’t going to rise above continuing to snipe at each other. After all, one of them was likely to be eliminated today. That’s just how these sort of shows went.
But still, the issue at hand, the apparent sabotage—would it be a mitigating factor?
M217BS: At any rate, lax security is no excuse.
PR1M4 D0NN4: I entered my show to save it from my lazy crew, not to undermine N37W02k… ::She looks at them fighting her bonds to use her hands to speak:: I felt a rush I hadn’t felt in ages, what if the audience could participate in their choice of stories! The rush of being with all these different species and engaging as one of them… to any of our shows! Thousands of hours they could not only watch but experience!!
Ah, the passion of youth. Every few millennia some upstart wanted to experiment with the tried and true forms. It never really made it off the planning stages and with good reason.
PR3ST1G: What you say has worth, PR1MA D0NN4.
M217BS: (bored) This has all been done before.
B345T: Was this like your first show, D0NN4? ::beat:: It’s not that hard to make them act their parts.
All eyes turned back to B345T who, of all of them, probably had the least room to criticize.
PR3ST1G: Do not pretend their willingness to act was because of any success on your part.
M217BS began to protest again—it had been because of his intervention that they had had willing actors. That had led to some of their best rated shows in decades—but then he thought better of it. Best to let the review process play out and claim its next victim. Show the scores for PR1M4 and move on.
PR1M4 D0NN4/3X3CUT1V3: Response
PR3ST1G: It was that way once, you know.
The hasbeen was pulling focus again. Possibly to stall from having to experience her own review and evaluation.
PR3ST1G: Once we told our own stories, and we took part in them. Those were the glorious days of our civilisation.
M217BS: Here we go again…
Another director, remembering their faded glory days and wishing they could go back. Well, they weren’t a thousand years old anymore and the audiences had long ago soured on Astrachthoni actors. Anyone who didn’t accept that was simply deluded.
B345T/3X3CUT1V3/PR1M4 D0NN4: Response
PR3ST1G: None of you are old enough to remember those days, when we were a part of it all, not just observers.
M217BS: I think PR3ST1G is just trying to get out of her performance review!
B345T/3X3CUT1V3/PR1M4 D0NN4: Response
PR3ST1G: Once upon a time, our kind graced the stage. We weren’t just dictating the stories, we were living them. You are all too young to remember, but I do. And N37W02K does. We are the last, we two, of our generation. Once, he shone as bright as the brightest star. Ask your master, 3X3CU71V3. Ask if he remembers. Time has taken much from him, but surely it hasn’t taken that.
M217BS was always up for taking Corporate down a peg or two, but this was too much—an emotional plea that could not help but fall on the stoney three-chambered hearts of their soulless United Syndicated Paranetwork bosses. Who did she think she was performing for?
M217BS eyed the cameras. oO Oh. Oo But still…
M217BS: Oh please, save us your maudlin memories. The past is dead, you can’t look back. True artistry looks forward!
3X3CUT1VE/PR3ST1G/B345T/PR1M4 D0NN4: Response
M217BS checked the scoreboard as it updated.
M217BS: Corporate can do what corporate wishes… I for one am eager to get this charade over with and back to my director’s seat. I have some… ideas…
A concept was forming—a story of a deluded old actress trying to stage a comeback. But the industry has moved on. She was once a star, but new technologies had progressed and moved beyond her. And maybe she had multiple husbands but started an affair with a much younger writer. Maybe it would be a musical. Sunset Starship.
3X3CUT1VE/PR3ST1G/B345T/PR1M4 D0NN4: Response
That pulled M217BS’s focus out from his creative reverie.
M217BS: That is outrageous! Uncalled for! I won’t stand for it!
To emphasize the point, he remained sitting.
3X3CUT1VE/PR3ST1G/B345T/PR1M4 D0NN4: Response
Director M217BS
Senior Executive Producer
USPS Showrunner
~as played by~
