Aphelion - Writer/Director/Producer
My end-of-year assignment in my final year of A-Level Moving Image Arts was to make a 5-7 minute film on whatever we wanted. I decided, having previously only dabbled in Gothic horror/fantasy so I wanted to try something a bit 'edgier', and opted to write my first ever 'Spy thriller'. It's the story of a private investigator, we follow her as she trains and completes tasks such as hacking and taking pictures for her unknown employer. For an unknown reason, she is hunted down and an attempt is made on her life, but only ends up with her assailant being shot. She goes off the radar and that is the last we see of her.
I took on all roles for the production, and I'm quite happy with the final product. As soon as I get a copy of it from my old teacher then I'll have it up online for you to see. I was heavily influenced by the work of David Fincher, Cindy Sherman and Joe Wright, particularly his film 'Hanna'.
Heed the Warning - Camera/Writer
A non-serious 15 second film that myself and three others in my class put together in our first year during class. It's a morality tale of a young man who finds that ignoring the warning signs on elevator doors could end up with some big changes...
I enjoyed this because I got to refresh my camera skills using a Canon 550d SLR.
Wildflower Way - Co-Director/Producer/Camera
A long-time collaborator of mine, Anya, found a local band, The Vals, on gumtree looking for film-makers to shoot a promotional film for their latest album 'Wildflower Way'. Myself, Anya and Matt our friend from college shot a live set for the band in Queens University and followed it up with interviews in Botanic Gardens. I shot using my own Nikon D5000.
Tuesday 26 November 2013
Time for a revival
Decided it was better to haul my writing blogging over to this already-pretty-good blog I made last year! Bear with me while I fix it up make it look like something an aspiring writer would use!
Friday 15 February 2013
Genre-breaking... what?!
(A quick note, I apologize for the lack of posts, I have been snowed under with work and as a result this blog has suffered too much neglect!)
I posted before about the teen-comedy genre, something that I'm extremely passionate about, a passion that I carried on into my script. Genre-breaking is a term which I came across while watching reviews on youtube for one of my favourite animes, 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica'.
Genre-breaking is essentially, the deconstruction of a genre, deconstruction being...
"a method of critical analysis of philosophical and literary language that emphasizes the internal workings of language and conceptual systems, the relational quality of meaning, and the assumptions implicit in forms of expression."
That's a bit of a mouthful... So basically, using Madoka Magica as an example, you pull apart the Magical Girl genre until you have its bare bones, the essence, what makes this genre the genre that it is. You'll find stock characters, plot elements and a basic overall story. You investigate these before putting it all back together into something of your own creation.
The Magical Girl genre, to anyone who is less informed about anime sub-culture, is a decades-old genre that involves adolescent girls being gifted with magical powers to defeat evil, while trying to deal with the stresses of everyday life, so basically it's Japan's answer to the US juggernauts of DC and Marvel.
The video above deconstructs the genre into several points that can be found throughout the Magical Girl genre, they are as follows:
I posted before about the teen-comedy genre, something that I'm extremely passionate about, a passion that I carried on into my script. Genre-breaking is a term which I came across while watching reviews on youtube for one of my favourite animes, 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica'.
"a method of critical analysis of philosophical and literary language that emphasizes the internal workings of language and conceptual systems, the relational quality of meaning, and the assumptions implicit in forms of expression."
That's a bit of a mouthful... So basically, using Madoka Magica as an example, you pull apart the Magical Girl genre until you have its bare bones, the essence, what makes this genre the genre that it is. You'll find stock characters, plot elements and a basic overall story. You investigate these before putting it all back together into something of your own creation.
The Magical Girl genre, to anyone who is less informed about anime sub-culture, is a decades-old genre that involves adolescent girls being gifted with magical powers to defeat evil, while trying to deal with the stresses of everyday life, so basically it's Japan's answer to the US juggernauts of DC and Marvel.
The video above deconstructs the genre into several points that can be found throughout the Magical Girl genre, they are as follows:
- Cute magical creature reveals itself to the protagonist and offers/grants them the ability to transform into a magical girl and combat evil.
- Stock characters (a term originating in ancient Greek theatre) are present such as the (often blue-haired) best friend, the clumsy and meek protagonist, big sister/mentor figure, tough tomboyish figure and the mysterious, deadpan character with unclear motives.
- Main character has an important magical destiny that only they can fulfill, something which a lot of the characters including the protagonist cannot comprehend.
After looking over these points, it's a lot like the narrative theories that I've been studying in film studies and script-writing, e.g. 'Monomyth' and 'The Hero of a Thousand Faces', so it's really interesting and useful to see how these theories are used in genres, not just in mainstream, but all over the world. Now coming back to the teen comedy genre, I used the formula that I posted a while back to give me something to build on for my script, and to my surprise I think it worked quite well! My script has been put forward to be made in class, something which I didn't expect at all. It's far from perfect, but it's something that's given me a lot more motivation!
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