by Blender Dumbass

Aka: J.Y. Amihud. A Jewish by blood, multifaceted artist with experience in film-making, visual effects, programming, game development, music and more. A philosopher at heart. An activist for freedom and privacy. Anti-Paternalist. A user of Libre Software. Speaking at least 3 human languages. The writer and director of the 2023 film "Moria's Race" and the lead developer of it's game sequel "Dani's Race".

Sheiny was walking back and forth anxiously. Mr. Humbert wasn't sure what's wrong with her. For the last few months she was excited about her new movie that is about to be released. Suddenly she isn't excited anymore. She is extremely nervous. In her mind every single flaw, every single mistake, every single little hazard. All of the stuff that she didn't make the way that would be the best for the film. All of this was tormenting her. The movie is about to be released but it isn't perfect. But worst of all was the fact that she might have overdone the movie's shock. She was filming pornography for nearly a year prior to the film-project. And she was afraid that the movie is too sexual, too gruesome, too strange. She was afraid that it was too scandalous for people to like it.

Mr. Humbert: Sheiny, what's the matter?

Sheiny: I start the film with a little girl masturbating.

Mr. Humbert: You are not showing it. You are implying it. It's perfectly legal.

Sheiny: Yes, but isn't it going to create a scandal?

Mr. Humbert: So be it.

Sheiny: But I want people to come to see the movie.

Mr. Humbert: People will come. The movie is fantastic.

Sheiny: They will see it once and will boycott it since then.

Mr. Humbert: Nobody will boycott nothing. People love controversy. The word of the extreme nature of the film will spread and more people will come just to get shocked.

Sheiny: I'm telling you, they will boycott it.

Mr. Humbert: Why horror films are not being boycotted, then?

Sheiny: Horror films don't have scenes of little girls masturbating.

Mr. Humbert: Exactly! And that's exactly the kind of new shock value that we offer in this film.

Sheiny: I'm scared.

Mr. Humbert: Sheiny, I worked in the business for a long time. There is no such thing as a bad scandal. Well... If the scandal brings with it a crime allegation, it could be dangerous. But if you are legally sound, and we are, there is nothing terrible in a scandal. Think of scandal as free advertisement.

Sheiny: The Streisand effect?

Mr. Humbert: What?

Sheiny: You know, there is this concept that if you try to suppress information. Like let's say to censor something. That this information becomes more popular as a result of the attempt of censorship.

Mr. Humbert: What's it called?

Sheiny: The Streisand effect.

Mr. Humbert: Interesting.

Sheiny: Yeah, but with the Streisand effect the person creating the scandal is usually the one that's being fought against.

Mr. Humbert: For example?

Sheiny: Let's say the original case. Barbara Streisand had a house a picture of which was taken. She tried to sue the publisher of the picture to remove the picture. But it only increased the interest of the public to the picture. Which puts Barbara Streisand, the person from whom the scandal originated, at a disadvantageous position in relation to the people spreading the scandal. Basically they spread the information because they think that she is bad in some way.

Mr. Humbert: Hm...

Sheiny: Or lately with Elon Musk. He flew his jet. Somebody sent his coordinates and got almost no attention, until Elon Musk banned the person from his website.

Mr. Humbert: You are talking about Twitter?

Sheiny: Yeah, that shit! People started a whole meme on Mastodon dedicated to re-posting of the flight coordinates. But the point is. People hate Musk right now. And I don't want people to hate me.

Mr. Humbert: Well... See... Musk tried to stop the information. Didn't he?

Sheiny: Yeah.

Mr. Humbert: Barbara tried also to stop the information. Didn't she?

Sheiny: Yeah... so?

Mr. Humbert: There is a pattern here. People hate the one that censors. The one that tries to remove the message. Not the message itself. If you make a shocking movie, shocking enough that some people will try to outright boycott you. They will be the ones that will be hated. While you and your message will get popular.

Sheiny: You have a point here. But that's kind of scary.

Mr. Humbert: It's good! The movie will be good. Don't worry...

Sheiny: No, no... Not the movie. If I boycott something, that something becomes more popular and I am not popular... I get it now!

Mr. Humbert: What?

Sheiny: You know, Free Software advocacy is mostly based on showing flaws in proprietary software. But instead of motivating people to get away from it, it seems to give them another layer of excuse to stick to it. Like you know, those toys that royal families in Russia would play? The finger trap?

Mr. Humbert: What are you talking about?

Sheiny: The finger trap... Yes! Of course! You know the finger trap? It's like a tube made of cloth. You stick two fingers from each side. But if you try to take the fingers out, the cloth will tighten and trap the fingers in there. The stronger you pull, the tighter it gets. The trick is, not to pull. But to push. It's counter intuitive, but that's what will release your fingers.

Mr. Humbert: Aha...

Sheiny: So perhaps, we need to promote proprietary software to get people interested in Free Software?

Mr. Humbert: Reverse Psychology? Well, this is what will happen with the movie.

Sheiny: But with a movie it's more complicated.

Mr. Humbert: What's the difference?

Sheiny: Reverse Psychology works well on not agreeable people. With agreeable people it does the opposite. If we want to lure people into the movie by planning that people will boycott it and other people will react to the boycott by boycotting the boycott, than it's only one half that will enjoy the film. Or even just a fraction. I don't know what are the stats of agreeableness in our country.

Mr. Humbert: There is no movie that everybody likes. There will always be a critic to hate on it. But if the movie is genuinely good, having critics is a good thing.

Sheiny: Isn't genuinely good movie not being criticized?

Mr. Humbert: A good movie is one that creates strong reactions. Critics criticize practical quality. Like how believable the actors are, or how little plot holes there are. But the viewer doesn't care. The viewer wants to laugh, cry, get scared and be in awe. And your movie accomplishes this well. Imagine a dull movie where there is nothing that makes you react to nothing. But technically the film is flawless. The actors are Oscar-worthy. The director makes it so you are never confused and can follow the plot very easily. The music is technically impressive. And so on an so forth. For the critic it's a good film. They will put an A+ on it. But it's boring. And therefor nobody is going to see it. On the other hand take Transformers. A loud explosion-fest with huge robots destroying half the city while hot people running around. This is something that will guarantee to make you react to it. Therefore people go to see it. Now, critics hate Transformers. And people hate critics for hating transformers. Because people love transformers.

Sheiny: People go to see transformers because it's a PG-13 movie based on a popular toy.

Mr. Humbert: Dead-pool is R-rated.

Sheiny: Based on a popular comics.

Mr. Humbert: Nah... Most people never heard of Dead-pool before the movie.

Sheiny: Ah...

Mr. Humbert: Dead-pool is popular exactly because it's designed to provoke reactions. It's gruesome, overly sexual and has jokes that aren't politically correct, so to speak. It capitalized on the scandal.

Sheiny: It still didn't have a little girl masturbating.

Mr. Humbert: You are pushing the envelope.

Sheiny: It feels a bit too far. I will break the envelope and people will hate me for that.

Mr. Humbert: Dead-pool had jokes about sex with multiple pedo-uncles. You are not too far away from that. Masturbating little girl. Yeah... Sounds about right. Sounds like just about the next step above Dead-pool.

Sheiny: Okay... But what about the scene where they are running naked on the alien ship?

Mr. Humbert: We designed the alien goo to cover your pipis. It's legal.

Sheiny: No I mean... Never mind. I got it. Scandal is a good promotional tool.

Happy Hacking!



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  AngryAlien c:0


The only thing I'm fucking

is up.

  WanchaiMike c:1


In my Universe - The finger trap - is Chinese - not Russian. The Famous Russian toy - was the doll, inside the doll, inside the doll.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_finger_trap

c:1 @WanchaiMike
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