Procession

Tomorrow's War Today!

[Procession @0xProcession]

What is good?—Whatever augments the feeling of power, the will to power, power itself, in man.

What is evil?—Whatever springs from weakness.

What is happiness?—The feeling that power increases—that resistance is overcome.

[leen @viennasfool]

the joys of being a cinephile in a third world low income country. the whole theatre just for me

[Procession @0xProcession]

@BitPundit Yes this is 100% what Trier was doing there. Ruben Östlund has also made reactionary movies that are disguised in some kind of liberal "dark satire" framing: Play (2011) is clearly a negative portrayal of black immigrants in Sweden and not some psychological thought experiment.

[Procession @0xProcession]

@mrblepp @woke8yearold Agree wrt Latin. But German and French are also useful if you're interested in philosophy or art criticism.

Only Americans rate Spanish so highly. It basically unlocks no major literary or philosophical schools.

It's rarely even offered in euro schools as a 2nd language.

[Adam Miller @_AdamMiller_]

Two of the biggest horror hits in cinemas right now - Obsession and Backrooms - trace back to the same person: @jason_blum

Obsession, produced by his company Blumhouse, has grossed $150m + on a 750k budget.

Backrooms - adapted from a 20-year-old YouTuber's viral shorts - opened to $118M worldwide off a $10M budget. Produced by Atomic Monster, the label Blum merged with in 2024.

Whats crazy is that these aren't one offs, he's done this dozens of times.

His company Blumhouse has produced 150+ films and TV shows grossing nearly $5 billion.

His slate of films literally looks like a venture capitalists portfolio:
- Paranormal Activity (2009) - $15K → $194M
- Insidious (2010) - $1.5M → $100M
- Sinister (2012) - $3M → $87M
- The Purge (2013) - $3M → $89M
- Whiplash (2014) - $3.3M → $50M
- Split (2017) - $9M → $278M
- Get Out (2017) - $4.5M → $255M (Best Picture nominee)
- Halloween (2018) - $10M → $255M

A fascinating piece of lore is that when he was co-head of acquisitions at Miramax, before Blumhouse, he passed on the Blair Witch Project, which was the OG of low-budget horror. It grossed 250m on ~60k.

He then founded Blumhouse in 2000, then hit with Paranormal Activity: made for ~$15,000, grossed $194m . The most profitable film in history by return.

His formula:
1. Low budget: Talent works for low upfront fees in exchange for rich back-end profit splits. The risk sits in deferred pay, not the budget.

2. Creative freedom: In return for the low fee, directors get near-total creative control. Almost unheard of in the modern studio system. Blum calls it "auteur filmmaking for commercial movies."

3. A VC-style portfolio. Tiny budgets mean he can make a lot of bets. No single failure sinks him - but one hit returns 50x. VC like assymetry

4. Horror as the vehicle. Few genres deliver on micro-budgets, because horror doesn't need stars or CGI. Cheapness can even read as authenticity.

To top it off, In 2024 he merged Blumhouse with James Wan's Atomic Monster - the Conjuring and Saw house - to build a horror powerhouse.

[Procession @0xProcession]

@FordonUbell @fleaflofloyd Under 40yo is not a normal age to be a director. It's young. Take a look at the ages of the directors of all the major Hollywood releases for the last 12 months. Not many will be under 40. It's even worse in Europe.

[Procession @0xProcession]

@FordonUbell @fleaflofloyd I'm speaking purely about film directors. Not age in general. Film directors are still considered young at 40. It's not likr athletics or the music business where you're over the hill by that age. Directors are more akin to novelists, who also would be considered young at 40.

[Procession @0xProcession]

@FordonUbell @fleaflofloyd True but a 39yo director still wouldn't be considered old. It's just that Barker and Parsons are extremely young.

[Procession @0xProcession]

@marlowmuses @micsolana Fair enough. Many Europeans find interacting with Americans frustrating on these issues bc they believe they do have free association and free speech. I'd say you have de facto restrictions on many aspects of your speech but you are certainly freer than any euro country.

[Procession @0xProcession]

@marlowmuses @micsolana You don't have freedom of association in America.

You wouldn't be able to create a company that offered mortgages to everyone except for black people. Even if you could provide data showing that this was a prudent business decision.

[Procession @0xProcession]

@2Planetary2Con This is too cynical. Hollywood is pretty good at letting new voices in when it figures out how to make money from them.

Remains to be seen if this moment will translate into something as big as the gen x indie wave of the 90s. But youtubers will eat well for the next few years.

[Procession @0xProcession]

@astafandrey @akarlin fwiw I think Mandarin (like German, French and Russian) is much more useful to an American than learning Spanish. Not for business reasons, but bc it will unlock many texts that aren't available in English.

[Procession @0xProcession]

@astafandrey @akarlin Interesting. Most Chinese i know say don't bother. Or study Chinese history and philosophy instead.

[Procession @0xProcession]

@astafandrey @akarlin Yeah I am likely biased from being based in London. All the foreigners here (even the ones passing through) have passable to very good English. I wouldn't be able to equal the English proficiency of the Chinese people I know even if I studied Mandarin for 3-5 years.

[Procession @0xProcession]

@astafandrey @akarlin This is from a pov of the native English speaker.

Maybe if you're from somewhere like the Philipines and want to do business in China, you'll benefit a lot from learning Mandarin.

But I don't think an American would benefit that much now from having very basic Mandarin.

[Procession @0xProcession]

@astafandrey @akarlin The connection will be made by everyone having some level of English proficiency. AI translation will fill in the gaps.

Learning a language (other than English) will become either recreational or academic unless you're emigrating to a different country.

[Procession @0xProcession]

@astafandrey @akarlin True for mastering a language. But not for basic conversation that is intelligible to most native speakers.

AI will be able to do the "business english" translation for every major language.

Learning a language to do podcasts or write substacks in it will have very low ROI.

[Procession @0xProcession]

@astafandrey @akarlin Almost everyone worth talking to is going to speak English within a decade. And ai auto translation will take care of the rest.

Unless you're emigrating, the only reason to learn a language now is to read original texts (literature, philosophy, history, mythology, etc.)

[Procession @0xProcession]

@akarlin Americans (and people based in America) over index on Spanish. German is far more useful to learn as it unlocks a ton of philosophy, literature, science/engineering, etc., that you won't get by learning Mexican Spanish to have an awkward conversation with your gardener.

[Procession @0xProcession]

There is a significant amount of art criticism that makes it to French but never gets translated to English.

For decades the only way to read Ozu's diaries (outside of the original Japanese) was in French translation.
https://t.co/ehiHBe5ftm

[Procession @0xProcession]

German, French (and probably Russian) are way more useful than Spanish if you're interested in reading philosophical, science/engineering and art criticism texts in their original languages.
https://t.co/eAIXsl35eY

[Procession @0xProcession]

German, French (and probably Russian) are way more useful than Spanish if you're interested in reading philosophical, science/engineering and art criticism texts in their original languages.
https://t.co/eAIXsl35eY

[Anatoly Karlin 🧲💯 @akarlin]

My tier list of languages by how useful they are.

Yes, there is nothing in A tier. English is just that goated. Chinese would be in A tier if it was less difficult.