At the end of my course, I have to produce a 20-minute short film. When creating this film, I want to Write, Direct and Edit the final product.

Whilst this will be a lot to take on, I believe I will be able to pull it off and it will help me get the best out of the course. In my previous posts, you can see my interest in each of these disciplines.

I have a few concepts bouncing around but whatever idea I choose to go with, I want it to be impactful and leave the audience contemplating about it days after.

As someone who struggles with mental health problems, I want to create something from the heart and something people can hopefully relate to.

Bringing a story to life from the struggles I and many others face, would make me feel like this course has been worthwhile.

Using all the knowledge I have learnt over the last few years and the last few months, in particular, will surely help me achieve my goal.

SHURIEJENAI (2019). this is not the end. [image] Available at: http://www.shuriejenai.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/this-is-not-the-end.jpg

Many people inspire me in the movie industry. Following in their footsteps would be a big dream come true.

Edgar Wright is a big influence on my work and myself as a person. His movies are amazing and are something I can keep going back to for inspiration.

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His style of directing and storytelling is different, and something I hope can influence my work now and in the future. Shaun of the Dead is such a simple movie, that is done amazingly well. This is something I hope I can achieve with future films I make.

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Even with a massive budget and being backed by Hollywood with Baby Driver, he still didn’t lose his charm and I could tell he still had full control over the creative side of the movie.

Another inspiration is Dexter Fletcher. He was known as an actor before getting into directing.

In his directing career, he has only currently directed 4 movies. Each one is critically acclaimed, which is a great thing for someone who is just starting in the industry. His recent movie, Rocketman, was an amazing experience and is one of my current favourite movies.

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If I can create anything like this, I will be content.

Empire (2019). Edgar Wright’s Next Film Is A Psychological Horror, Plus Baby Driver 2 Update. [image] Available at: https://cdn.onebauer.media/one/empire-images/articles/5c45cc69fd0c0bc84449e8a3/edgar%20wright.jpg?quality=50&width=1800&ratio=16-9&resizeStyle=aspectfill&format=jpg

IMDb (2019). Dexter Fletcher. [image] Available at: https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMzRlYzE0ZTEtZTUyYi00MDYzLTljYTMtMTJjODc2NzlhMzg5XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTQ0NDg1MDY@._V1_.jpg

Paramount Pictures (2019). Rocketman Movie Poster. [image] Available at: http://www.impawards.com/2019/posters/rocketman_ver2.jpg

United International Pictures (2019). Shaun of the Dead Movie Poster. [image] Available at: http://www.impawards.com/2004/posters/shaun_of_the_dead_ver2_xlg.jpg

As someone who struggles with my mental health, I find it difficult to keep my passion alive. Depression makes it difficult to keep enjoying what I am doing. Anxiety makes me question if this is something I want to pursue or if I am doing what I am doing correctly.

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To make sure I don’t lose the passion I have; I visit the cinema as much as possible, make sure I am up to date on the industry and enjoy the creations I make.

I remind myself that achieving my goals won’t be easy and I try to keep pushing forward. All this hard work I am putting in will be worth it and I can’t give up.

Giving up will mean I failed and failing isn’t an option.

Medium (2019). Depression. [image] Available at: https://miro.medium.com/max/3000/1*Nb14JJqqyNgWW-xG9d6FuA.jpeg

As someone who has the hobby of photography, I enjoy capturing moments in time. Framing them correctly and bringing the moment to life, frozen in time forever.

I believe my hobby of photography helps me when it comes to filmmaking because I understand how to frame and capture each moment.

With photography, you’ve got to tell a story with one single frame. In film you’ve got to tell a story with many.

I love movies that have those shots, which you could take and it would be like a beautiful photo or even a painting. Blade Runner 2049 is one movie that comes to mind. Each frame of this movie is beautiful. It brings you into the world and makes you sit there in awe.

I try to bring my knowledge of capturing a photo into my films, but I don’t particularly want to go into cinematography. However, this knowledge is still crucial to understanding what I want from the films I make. Making the audience going ‘wow’ is my aim.

Warner Bros. Pictures (2019). Blade Runner 2049. [image] Available at: https://a.ltrbxd.com/resized/sm/upload/aj/h8/ku/9n/blade-runner-2049-1200-1200-675-675-crop-000000.jpg?k=aae914174e

Let’s get back at basics. Every movie starts with a screenplay.

“What an archetypal story does is introduce you to a central character – the protagonist – and invite you to identify with them.” (Yorke, 2019) This is what John Yorke starts of his article called “What makes a great screenplay?” and it puts everything into context. Every story has the same thing, a protagonist.

This is the character you want your character to get attached to and watch throughout the movie. Without a well-rounded character, you haven’t got a good script. Characters are the most important thing, just like real life. If you’re a boring person no one is going to want to be friends with you, so scriptwriters have to make sure they are creating an interesting character to keep the audience engaged.

As someone who enjoys writing scripts, I understand how hard it is to create a relatable interesting character. This is something I hope to improve on and I believe as I continue to write screenplays, this will become second nature to me. When writing scripts currently, I try to get into the mindset of the characters I am writing and I feel this makes it easier to write something natural.

If I don’t enjoy what I am writing why should I expect other people too.

Yorke, J. (2019). What makes a great screenplay?. [online] The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/mar/15/john-yorke-best-screenwriting

As a filmmaker, I need to understand what’s important to make a great piece of media, otherwise, I will end up creating stuff I am not happy with and more importantly, something other people aren’t happy with.

Over the last month or so, during the direction and editing workshops, and I have begun to understand what’s important. Directing actors in a way that they give their best performance and not making them force something they’re not happy with. As a director, you’ve got to respect the actors and feel they will give they will interpret the script in a way that works because if you cross the line in telling them what to exactly do, you will end up with a bad performance from them.

This leads to editing and why this is also important. If you edit something that doesn’t feel natural, the audience will know where the cuts are and this takes them out of the film. You don’t want the audience to sit there uncomfortable with the way it is edited. You’ve got to edit it in a way that feels natural and this is something you do by not cutting on the dialogue.

Both editing and direction is something I have struggled with, but over the last couple of months, I feel more comfortable directing people and understand the best way to edit scenes. Both the editing and direction workshops have opened my eyes to improving on things I thought I knew.

Leading on from my previous post, my goal is to create films that leave an impact on the audience. I want to create films where the audience leaves and go “wow.” As a filmmaker, I need to understand how to leave that lasting impact on people.

Over the last few weeks I have watched films where I have left and gone “wow, that was amazing.” Those films were on my mind for days and I still can’t get over how great they are. Le Mans ’66 is one movie that I left speechless. That movie brings to life a tragic story and hits you hard. You leave the cinema, having been through the amazing racing scenes and then the gut-punch of an ending, gobsmacked.

Another movie I was amazed by has to be Knives Out. I heard many good things before going in and I hoped I wouldn’t leave disappointed. I didn’t. I left amazed. The script for this movie was perfect and it really kept you engaged. At each turn, I thought I knew the twist ending, but when the ending hit, I was surprised I didn’t see it coming. This movie has left me impressed that people can still create such thought-provoking movies and actually having the audience in the palm of their hands, feeling like they’re involved.

If as a filmmaker, I can create a piece of media that can leave a lasting impact on who watches it, I will feel like I have achieved my goal.

20th Century Fox (2019). Le Mans ’66 Movie Poster. [image] Available at: http://www.impawards.com/2019/posters/ford_v_ferrari_ver3.jpg

Lionsgate (2019). Knives Out Movie Poster. [image] Available at: http://www.impawards.com/2019/posters/knives_out_ver14_xlg.jpg

There have been a few controversial movies over the last couple of years. These are the movies we hear about in the press before they’re even released to the public. 

Critics warning people about how controversial a movie is before it is released, does more good for the movie than harm, in most cases. 

Joker is a recent example of this. Critics were warning people that this would cause violence and mass shootings in the US. All this scaremongering helped the movie and made people want to see it more. This was proven by the box office records it broke and how much money it made. “There seems to be no stopping Warner Bros and DC’s Joker movie, as it has now made over $1 billion at the worldwide box office.” (ANDERTON, 2019). Hitting over $1 billion worldwide shows that even being labelled controversial by the media before release, didn’t stop the movie succeeding. 

If the ‘bad’ press did anything, it made more money for the movie, made the internet go crazy and made people dance on some stairs in New York. 

As we can see, people on the internet are making light of the movie and this shows the bad press was slightly unnecessary. 

As an aspiring filmmaker myself, I left this movie speechless at how good it was. It has made me want to create movies that leave an impact on the audience once they leave the cinema. 

ANDERTON, J. (2019). Joker has achieves another box office milestone as global takings pass $1bn mark. [online] Digital Spy. Available at: https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a29827102/joker-box-office-milestone-1-billion/

Matthews, B. (2019). Public Dancing On Stairs That Appear In Joker. [image] Available at: https://storage.googleapis.com/afs-prod/media/b45db6ee37b84a918336ffde83d0575f/1000.jpeg

Screen Rant (2019). Joker Meme. [image] Available at: https://static2.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Joker-Running-Away-From-Your-Problems-Meme.jpg?q=50&fit=crop&w=740&h=555&dpr=1.5

Warner Brothers (2019). Joker. [image] Available at: https://miro.medium.com/max/750/1*6mdRN2BAK7kk2dvicIzCMg.jpeg

Confidence is something I have lacked over the years. Being passionate and wanting to go into an industry, which relies on confidence, is a tough thing to do when you deal with anxiety.

Learning about this industry is helping me grow the confidence I need to progress through this wonderful but tough career choice.

As an aspiring director, I need to be able to have the confidence to control a crew. Studying this at university, with the directing workshops, is helping that confidence slowly grow.

Whilst dealing with social anxiety, I also find it hard to have confidence in myself, my work and my capabilities. Creating stuff, that being at university or in my own time, helps me feel good about what I can do. As I progress, I hope for my confidence to grow until I am happy with myself and where I am at in my journey.

Oscars (2019). ALFRED HITCHCOCK. [image] Available at: https://www.oscars.org/collection-highlights/alfred-hitchcock

As an aspiring filmmaker, I try to learn new things about the world of cinema every day. This may be from what I am learning in univeristy, going to the cinema or reading up on the latest news and research within the movie industry.

I try to learn new things to help me understand who I want to be as a filmmaker. Understanding what works and doesn’t work, making sure that I can be the best I can be.

Over the last year, I have watched nearly 90 movies, that being in the cinema or on Netflix and other streaming services, in the comfort of my own home. Watching so many movies has helped me understand what I want to bring to the table within the movie industry.

One reason I decided to do a master’s in film and television production was to continue learning something I love. I studied the same course for 2 years at college and then I did a further 3 years at university. Studying the same course for nearly 6 years means I know a lot but it doesn’t mean I know everything. I hope the research and practical work I do, helps me grow in confidence and helps me make a difference in the world of cinema.