twinklyci wrote:Does it really bother you if filming style changes? The vblog format is really nice, but I have to admit, I like seeing Bree and Daniel on screen together and I would not mind at all if they gave up the vblog perspective and started 3rd person shooting the videos.
I agree with that.
Nora Volkova wrote:Right now, it isn't time for us to care about the side characters yet; I think the difficulty people have in accepting them is that we had plenty of time to grow to love Bree and Daniel before the plot moved along. Right now we just get a lot of snarky and silly mugging from Jonas and Gemma which makes them both come across as disturbing narcissists when responding to a pair of young people in the situation Bree and Daniel have found themselves in.
I agree. That's probably the problem a lot of people have had adjusting to them. They may have needed to be around longer.
At the same time, though, I have to wonder what would have happened if they
had been around longer. Sure we might have gotten to like them on their own terms before we even had confirmation that this was a production, but what would the Creators be doing with them now? There'd end up being people who would say that they still came off as emotionally-detached narcissists unless they were putting up like 50 vlogs a day expressing concern for Daniel and Bree, or unless they offered to put all of their finances and their own lives toward resolving the situation for them.
I think bringing in new characters at all created a tough situation for the Creators.
Nora Volkova wrote:If this is meant to be a character point -- being raised within the Order instills charisma but damages the young person's ability to care deeply, even after they have left its influence -- that's fair enough, and perhaps we are even picking up on early notes of that with Bree's defensive nonchalance. Bree could have, in other words, grown into Jonas and Gemma.
As far as I know, Jonas has no connection to the Order.
Nora Volkova wrote:Right now, the character who most needs to be developed is Daniel. I think you guys are making a tiny step in the right direction with it, but Daniel is the only semi-responsible person at the moment who is capable of caring for Bree. Leave the too-charismatic-for-his-backstory breebait Jonas on the shelf for another couple of weeks, even if it means rescheduling everyone.
I personally think that Jonas should be a spin-off more or less to himself. Let him have his own ongoing storyline or something. Keep the connection to Bree and Daniel's storyline to cameos at best.
Maybe have it crossover with Gemma's or something. This guy's rich. He could end up in England while on a quest to find out what happened to his parents. They could totally do something like that, and then have them team up.
Not only would it prevent any of us from wanting to fillet him alive for getting deeply involved in Bree-Daniel relations, but it would allow for a good opportunity to really make us get attached to Gemma and Jonas on their own terms. And it would also be a nice turnabout of the formula.
What I mean by this is that some have suggested that Jonas is a male Bree to some extent or another. So why not run with it? Here in Bree and Daniel's storyline, we have a female main character with a male that -- while also a main character in the sense of the storyline -- is still the second person. If we had Jonas and Gemma join up for their own story, it would be the other way around. I hope you're listening, Creators!
Besides, there's only so much longer they can carry this whole Order thing anyway. If the Creators really want to get the most mileage out of all this, they'll resolve that in the next month or two at the most, and then try something like what I've suggested with Jonas and Gemma.
That way, they can begin this
new story with already introduced characters.
Nora Volkova wrote:Don't be so focused on using everyone to move the plot three milimeters forward before we've had a chance to not loathe the new characters -- you're experimental anyway, so try NOT BEING SO LINEAR.
I think that's something else my suggestion would really address. We'd get to learn to like Jonas and Gemma in the new storyline.
Also, I think the Creators understand something: even though is the Breeniverse, everything doesn't have to revolve around Bree. Jonas, for instance, has his own backstory, his own personal tragedies, etc. that are in no way related to Bree's life (as far as we know).
Expanding the Breeniverse, to me, means treating other characters as though they don't exist solely for the sake of adding to Bree's personal story developments. In other words, they don't have to try developing Gemma and Jonas to Bree or Daniel levels before they finish Bree and Daniel's storyline. That would be playing to this idea that everything revolves around Bree.
Again, if the Creators want to get the most mileage out of all this, they've got to wrap up this Order thing relatively soon (patience only goes so far), and then see what they can get out of the other characters. After the Order thing gets wrapped up, they can have a second "season" with Daniel and Bree if they want even while Jonas and Gemma go off and do their own thing.
Then we could have occasional cameos. Personally, I think this would do wonders for the survival of the franchise (well, it's not really a franchise yet, but you know what I mean; I think it would do wonders for helping it become one).
They'd need to wrap up a lot of stuff in the next month or two, though, particularly where Cassie (the plot device), OpAphid and Tachyon are concerned.
Nora Volkova wrote:Go back to Mesh's apartment and show us Daniel and Bree amusing themselves by "remixing" stuff they "didn't use" from older vlogs. Let Bree finally talk some more about her nonThelemic nonReligion. Script us some business of Daniel teaching Bree to edit.
If they do something like that, one or two videos of that at the most is all it should be. 10 videos of filler just to get Jonas and Gemma more developed would be bad bad bad. At least in my opinion, because -- as I've explained above -- revolving the Breeniverse around Bree makes for a pretty bad, unconvincing universe that a lot of people would lose interest in after a while. I still think having those other two really get their development rolling in their own series would be the way to go. Especially since they don't need to keep dragging the Order storyline on.
Nora Volkova wrote:Quit shoving Yousef in the back of the frame, dammit.
Ok, this I agree with.