Dang dudes this is exhausting.

[essbeejay]

I need to learn to condense. I'm just spending way too much time going SO IN DEPTH (!!!) on my insanity.

The final first part of the final (public-entry-friendly—more on this later) top five is my top five scenarios involving the PpG/RrB in a musical montage. Yeah, it's a mouthful! I've got to give the requester of this one kudos; it was certainly one of the more creative requests!

Ah, so... yeah, I have a ridick amount of scenarios in my head, actually. Most of them are the same thing, particularly the ones set to any j-pop song (most of those are action montages). Those are a lot of fun, but extremely difficult to describe, and I don't have the patience/skill to storyboard it out, much less time them to music. The rest of my montages fall into one of a few categories:

• Actual storyline
• Themed music video (scenes are thematically related but don't necessarily have an arc)
• Self-conscious music video

The action montages can fall in either the first or second category. The first category sometimes becomes inspiration for actual fic. The second category is what I often use/listen to to convey a particular mood in a particular scene—I use them for fight scenes, specific character scenes, etc.. The third category is mostly me being silly (e.g., Townsville's villains dancing to B.E.G.'s “Abracadabra”). These are fun and stupid, frankly.

Due to their nature, these montages on the list fall into the first and third categories.

... Man, I'm not sure how I'm going to begin to describe these.

Top Five Scenarios Involving the PpG/RrB in A Musical Montage

1. Hot n Cold by Katy Perry. Alright, let's start with the TEF-inspired Cat 3 music montage! (Shoutout to wei_chan; I lawled when I discovered you had this on your Reds playlist because it was totally on mine, too.) This montage actually came about after I'd written TEF ch1—thinking about the party at Princess' place afterwards led to me going all over the top with an alternate take on the Reds when they confront each other.
   First verse - Blossom gets on Brick's case, singing yelling at him until the end of the verse, when she backs into the ballroom...
   Chorus - ...And then she and a group of girls behind her explode into choreography! Figure this is basically Brick getting told through the power of DANCE.
   Second verse - Feeling thoroughly emasculated, now it's Brick's turn to get on Blossom's case with lyrics that don't actually make much sense for his character but hey it's a Cat 3 so fuckall is supposed to make sense. End of the verse, he backs into some undisclosed area... idk, like, the kitchen or something...
   Chorus - ...And then he and a group of boys behind him explode into CHAIR CHOREOGRAPHY. One of the many times I wish I could draw competently because this would be so much damn fun to storyboard and set to music. I even work in a little BL hint during the “we kiss, we make up” line xoxoxo. Thoroughly pissed now, Blossom attacks Brick at the end of the chorus.
   Bridge - Blossom's and Brick's fight basically starts destroying the house. Their siblings follow them around, mildly amused (Butch is eating popcorn and Bubbles is all eye-rolly). The four of them sing the bridge, Boomer on lead guitar. Their movement is that exaggerated movement you get in music videos, slightly pose-y and subject to lots of MTV-cuts.
   Slight verse reprise - Blossom snarling at Brick during a pause where they are both hair-mussed and rumpled, exhausted and heaving for breath.
   Chorus - They dive for each other and basically make out for the rest of the song. My favorite part is when Blossom shoves him against the wall and whispers the “stay” line, then Brick flips them and whispers the “go” line. YEAAAAAAHHHH THIS IS SBJ, BEING STUPID CRAZY.
2. Fushizen na Girl by Perfume. My newest one, but one of my favorites already. It's pretty much a variation on the stunningly beautiful and transfixing music video, featuring not the Girls, but the Boys (I do this a lot, if you haven't guessed) in suits and minus the backup dancers. I even find the lyrics (translation here) strangely fitting in their general gist, as long as you ignore the obvious markers of gender. While not completely fleshed out, what's there has very strong visuals in my head (like I said, largely inspired by the mv); I'd love to storyboard this out someday. I'll do my best to try and describe this damn thing.
   Chorus (Vocal Run? Help me out, music peeps) - Overhead shot (looking straight down) of the Boys, lying against a black backdrop, fairly relaxed poses, looking up (to cam), heads pointing to center, and completely decked out in black menswear (sans suit jacket) save for the silk tie—Boomer's is pale blue, Brick's is pink, and Butch's is pale green. Predictably. And yeah. They singin'. (You have to pretend they are singing with their deeper boy voices. There's a lot of pretending to do here.) One hand each over their hearts, and when the ticking part comes in the boys start patting their chests in sync to simulate a heartbeat.
   First Verse - Brick walks on, speaking/singing to cam as he buttons up a different shirt—bright red. Moves aside to reveal Boomer, back to cam, shrugging into a (fuck me I am shaking my head here because I cannot BELIEVE how nerdy I am) blue shirt as he turns to cam. Camera moves off him and pans to Butch, examining the cufflinks on his green shirt before deciding he doesn't give a fuck and just stuffing his hands in his pockets.
   Chorus - DANCE TIME. VOGUING LIKE THERE'S NO TOMORROW, BITCHES. (Obviously Brick is in the lead here and he is the best, buh.)
   Second verse - Not entirely decided, but for the time being it involves the boys putting on solid black ties and Butch solo sprawling in an armchair. Possibly runs his hand across the front of his face and leaves a blood-red streak behind for the “makeup” line. In closeup, of course.
   Chorus - Er, how do I describe this? This mirrors the mv pretty closely. In the first half of the chorus there are six squares, three on top of the other, boys alternating (so Boomer is top left, Brick is middle bottom, Butch is top right). The three empty squares are all black, save for one small square of color within it. At each beat the boys reach (and hold pose) in the direction of that little square only to have it disappear until the beginning of the next beat. Yeah, guess what color each square is. In the second half I'm undecided. More dancing, I think. They haven't danced enough yet.
   Third verse - Oh, my favorite part. Three dressmaker's dolls, bearing grown-up variations of three very familiar dresses. Boys spend the whole time eyeing the figures, touching the fabric, circling them. At the end of the (very short) verse the boys each move towards their dolls, only to immediate round away, falling over and knocking their respective dolls to the ground with a swath of red satin “streaming” from their chests connected to their dolls' chests.
   Chorus - Continuing from last verse, but in the overhead setup from the start of the song. Boys are glassy eyed next to their dolls. Boomer is the only one singing. He is facing his doll. Brick faces away. I don't know what the hell Butch is up to. The red satin starts retreating into their chests and the dolls' chests. Again, when the ticking starts, their hands simulate a heartbeat in time with the musical beat.
   Repeat of Chorus - All boys start singing again and everything “falls” upright again. Boomer clings to his doll on his knees, Butch slams his either against the wall or the floor sneering, Brick just stands determinedly not facing his doll with his pissed-off-cat-face on. As the chorus builds Boomer grips his doll tighter, Butch's sneer fades and he touches his more gently, and without turning around Brick reaches a tentative hand back to brush the hem of his doll's skirt. Culminates with Boomer burying his face in his doll's dress, Butch resting his forehead against his doll's neckline, Brick dramatically!!! whipping around to swing his doll into a dip.
   Outro - Back to the overhead shot. Boys and dolls tumble to the ground, Boomer once again turned to his while Brick and Butch are simply face-up, all with one hand on their dolls and looking up to cam. The boys' heads turn to look at their dolls during the last line.
3. A Thousand Miles by Vanessa Carlton. IT'S THE BLUES. BIG SURPRISE. This one is a little less specific, so I won't break it down bit by bit like the previous two. Plus it's really tiring to do it that way, guh. It starts out with the boys taking advantage of a monster attack to break into a bank safe. The commotion outside catches Boomer's attention as he grabs two sacks of cash, and he drifts to the window to watch the girls fighting the monster. The monster gets in a lucky hit, the girls wind up on the ground, and the monster moves for Bubbles as she comes to and cowers in fear. Boomer, watching, decides enough is enough (!!!) and shoots outside, killing the monster in one blow and rescuing Bubbles (end of first chorus). For most of the song we see Bubbles and Boomer growing closer, hanging out, enjoying each other's company and falling in love, until inevitably (and frequently) Bubbles is captured by some dastardly villain or put in wicked danger, and Boomer needs to go rescue her. The silliness factor is all over the place (think villains with handlebar mustaches tying her to train tracks, cowboys vs. Indians, Jedis vs. droids, the more ridiculous yet recognizable the scenario, the better). Every time Boomer heroically rescues her, they just fall in love more. By the time the bridge hits they are newlyweds moving into their new home. Boomer wakes up the following morning to find her missing, goes running out into the crowded streets looking for her, frantic, then, finally, spots a dragon flying overhead with her in her clutches. YES, SILLINESS PLAYS A BIG ROLE HERE. Boomer goes all Determinator and for that big build at the end we see him in multiple iterations of any heroic persona you could possibly think of, and he busts into the castle ('cause, you know, dragons be livin' in castles) and leaps off his horse in his ridonk armor brandishing a lethal sword, only to stop in shock and discover the dragon is dead, felled by Bubbles. She turns to face him, dressed normally, and gives him a bewildered look. Boomer blinks and discovers that he's back in Townsville, on the street, standing in front of Bubbles with the two sacks of money in either hand, the monster from the beginning now dead behind her. Scenery around him fades to a jail cell, him behind bars (over the last “toniiiiiiiiiight” in the song) and watching as Bubbles leaves. He presses his face up against the bars to watch her go and sighs.

Okay dudes, imma have to finish this tomorrow. Plus the TEF trivia. PLUS my camera hookup is all wonky right now, so Saturday's “Show off my geek side” post is still delayed until I can get that working again.