Post by Roberto Verona on Jul 27, 2024 16:05:46 GMT
I am just going to close this by being explicitly clear – please stop altering the way you are writing at this stage, absolutely nothing I am saying is a hard rule, this is a discussion. Do not handicap yourselves by removing things.
Quite recently a deal of confusion and worry has emerged over rules surrounding what is and is not “on camera.” I think a great deal of confusion comes from how people view this game much more broadly – which is precisely why I am opening a discussion rather than creating a rule which will be interpreted in different ways by different people.
I’d like to be explicitly clear what I personally mean whenever I used the word “camera.” In simplistic terms, the “camera” is the lens through which we the handlers (aka the TV audience) view IWF and is the fourth wall between our characters and our handlers.
I think a lot of confusion is arising because the perspective many people have is they’re playing a gimmick on IWF TV Shows but also a character living a private life away from their job as well. The implication from what I can tell is that this is leading people to believe that if I suggest their “private lives” are on camera, they’re essentially fair game for reference by anybody and there’s people filming their intimate moments.
I do not consider the “camera” to be a fourth wall between our characters on IWF TV and our characters “outside of work” and our handlers.
This is a very important distinction, in my opinion.
I have never meant that considering your work outside of direct to camera promos to be “on camera” means that every other character can just go home and watch it – therefore making it fair game for everyone to reference in promos. I have always marked roleplays down where handlers have referenced something they’ve got knowledge of that their character’s logically wouldn’t.
To me, that is no different that suggesting Sauron could just go watch Return of the King and realise Frodo and Sam have the ring and are currently in Mordor disguised as Orcs or that Ned Stark can just read the prologue to Game of Thrones and possess the knowledge of the existence of white walkers.
As far as I am concerned, your characters do not – in any capacity – exist on the audience side of the fourth wall (camera) which separates the “actors” (characters) and the “audience” (handlers).
When I suggest that I consider everything to be televised, that is the distinction I am operating within.
As far as I am concerned, everything you write should be considered televised and have some sort of relevance to the characters you are writing – regardless of whether you wish to create a distinction between the “professional” and the “private.”
Essentially – in my opinion it doesn’t matter which way you decide to write, you’re still playing one character. I do not consider the “professional” and “private” to be distinct characters, either you’re simply not breaking kayfabe at all OR you’re exploring a person balancing their job and their lives – but they’re still the character.
All of it should be telling some sort of interconnected story, whatever you want to write about that is existing in the “private” lives of your wrestlers should have some relevance to their “professional” life – or what is the point of writing it? Why should it contribute towards judging their performance in matches?
I’ve always found it quite jarring to read a roleplay where somebody is openly exploring how their personal life is collapsing (divorce, death of relatives etc) and then I read the promo and it’s like nothing is wrong. Why isn’t this normally upbeat character a little more withdrawn, angry or melancholic? Why does all this carefully written drama essentially begin when they leave the ring and end when they re-enter it?
Under these distinctions I wouldn’t consider IWF TV to be just Sacrifice/Odyssey and your promos – I would see it more as a television drama following characters inside and outside of the ring whilst strictly suspending disbelief to ignore that wrestling is pre-determined and thus treating it as a legitimate combat sport and these character’s as athletes.
Everything you’re writing being “televised” is therefore meant in the sense that all of it is being broadcast to the “audience” (which is explicitly the handlers and only the handlers, never the characters) so they can follow character and story development whilst the “actors” can only ever realistically have knowledge of scenes they are literally in or have been informed about by those in them.
The only exception would be any sort of event which happened in a match or segment (i.e. attacks, cheating etc) – even segments where people have private conversations whilst broadcast to the “audience” would not be common knowledge to the “actors” or the fictional “audience” in the crowds at shows.
So no, I personally would not consider that because you wrote a sex scene random roster members have all seen you naked. The handlers have though – because of course they have.
Our responsibility when we’re writing is to sit and carefully think what our characters could realistically know on that basis and what would be “breaking character.” Your character may know that A and B are in a relationship because they’re friends with B, it does not mean they sat an watched them having sex because you wrote a roleplay where they entered a shower together.
The “camera” does not exist in the universe your character’s existing within.
It is the window through which we the handlers watch them develop – and therefore, everything should be relevant to the entire character.
I’ll stop there and reply to anything people may say but that is MY perspective as a fedder NOT some dictate as a fed head. I am not suggesting anything is a hard and fast rule, I think how we see the game is something that is interesting to discuss more broadly.
I can only say that I will never consider that obviously private scenes between characters is “fair game” to be referenced – so if that is the concern, please consider it to be baseless and relax.
I may be a little busy but I will respond when I can but here is the chance to discuss it.
Quite recently a deal of confusion and worry has emerged over rules surrounding what is and is not “on camera.” I think a great deal of confusion comes from how people view this game much more broadly – which is precisely why I am opening a discussion rather than creating a rule which will be interpreted in different ways by different people.
I’d like to be explicitly clear what I personally mean whenever I used the word “camera.” In simplistic terms, the “camera” is the lens through which we the handlers (aka the TV audience) view IWF and is the fourth wall between our characters and our handlers.
I think a lot of confusion is arising because the perspective many people have is they’re playing a gimmick on IWF TV Shows but also a character living a private life away from their job as well. The implication from what I can tell is that this is leading people to believe that if I suggest their “private lives” are on camera, they’re essentially fair game for reference by anybody and there’s people filming their intimate moments.
I do not consider the “camera” to be a fourth wall between our characters on IWF TV and our characters “outside of work” and our handlers.
This is a very important distinction, in my opinion.
I have never meant that considering your work outside of direct to camera promos to be “on camera” means that every other character can just go home and watch it – therefore making it fair game for everyone to reference in promos. I have always marked roleplays down where handlers have referenced something they’ve got knowledge of that their character’s logically wouldn’t.
To me, that is no different that suggesting Sauron could just go watch Return of the King and realise Frodo and Sam have the ring and are currently in Mordor disguised as Orcs or that Ned Stark can just read the prologue to Game of Thrones and possess the knowledge of the existence of white walkers.
As far as I am concerned, your characters do not – in any capacity – exist on the audience side of the fourth wall (camera) which separates the “actors” (characters) and the “audience” (handlers).
When I suggest that I consider everything to be televised, that is the distinction I am operating within.
As far as I am concerned, everything you write should be considered televised and have some sort of relevance to the characters you are writing – regardless of whether you wish to create a distinction between the “professional” and the “private.”
Essentially – in my opinion it doesn’t matter which way you decide to write, you’re still playing one character. I do not consider the “professional” and “private” to be distinct characters, either you’re simply not breaking kayfabe at all OR you’re exploring a person balancing their job and their lives – but they’re still the character.
All of it should be telling some sort of interconnected story, whatever you want to write about that is existing in the “private” lives of your wrestlers should have some relevance to their “professional” life – or what is the point of writing it? Why should it contribute towards judging their performance in matches?
I’ve always found it quite jarring to read a roleplay where somebody is openly exploring how their personal life is collapsing (divorce, death of relatives etc) and then I read the promo and it’s like nothing is wrong. Why isn’t this normally upbeat character a little more withdrawn, angry or melancholic? Why does all this carefully written drama essentially begin when they leave the ring and end when they re-enter it?
Under these distinctions I wouldn’t consider IWF TV to be just Sacrifice/Odyssey and your promos – I would see it more as a television drama following characters inside and outside of the ring whilst strictly suspending disbelief to ignore that wrestling is pre-determined and thus treating it as a legitimate combat sport and these character’s as athletes.
Everything you’re writing being “televised” is therefore meant in the sense that all of it is being broadcast to the “audience” (which is explicitly the handlers and only the handlers, never the characters) so they can follow character and story development whilst the “actors” can only ever realistically have knowledge of scenes they are literally in or have been informed about by those in them.
The only exception would be any sort of event which happened in a match or segment (i.e. attacks, cheating etc) – even segments where people have private conversations whilst broadcast to the “audience” would not be common knowledge to the “actors” or the fictional “audience” in the crowds at shows.
So no, I personally would not consider that because you wrote a sex scene random roster members have all seen you naked. The handlers have though – because of course they have.
Our responsibility when we’re writing is to sit and carefully think what our characters could realistically know on that basis and what would be “breaking character.” Your character may know that A and B are in a relationship because they’re friends with B, it does not mean they sat an watched them having sex because you wrote a roleplay where they entered a shower together.
The “camera” does not exist in the universe your character’s existing within.
It is the window through which we the handlers watch them develop – and therefore, everything should be relevant to the entire character.
I’ll stop there and reply to anything people may say but that is MY perspective as a fedder NOT some dictate as a fed head. I am not suggesting anything is a hard and fast rule, I think how we see the game is something that is interesting to discuss more broadly.
I can only say that I will never consider that obviously private scenes between characters is “fair game” to be referenced – so if that is the concern, please consider it to be baseless and relax.
I may be a little busy but I will respond when I can but here is the chance to discuss it.
Well howdy there pardner.