Positioning your Practice - 2nd Version

Position your Practice

I am a storyteller. “Why, whatever do you mean by that James?” I hear you cry. Well, I mean that my practice is primarily, if not entirely, focused toward a film’s narrative. The stories I like to tell are mostly character driven along with some sort of message or theme. Although I like stories with a meaning, it’s not nearly as important to me as the characters and narrative. I enjoy making use of humour and comedy but I also take great delight in mixing it with horror and darker more serious themes, creating a wonderful juxtaposition that complements both the comedy and the horror.  I like a story to take it’s time and not rush things, I find this helps to create tension, atmosphere and helps to immerse the audience into the piece.

My favourite film director is not Kubrick or Tarantino, although I am a big fan or both. No, my favourite director is Kevin Smith. Ever since watching Clerks I have wanted to make films like him. His dialogue is a particular love of mine, it is the exact kind of ‘over-written’ conversations, often picking apart pop-culture, that I love, and often do, have with my closest friends and also the kind of conversations I enjoy writing. I’m also a big fan of his static camerawork, I think it’s both charmingly simplistic and helps focus the audience on what the heart of his films are, that is that interaction between the characters. However, Smith’s films tend to be smaller scale than the films I aspire to make, but regardless the interaction between characters and the use of static camerawork is a big influence on my practice.

 Throughout my childhood I watched a lot of British sitcoms, Red Dwarf and The Young Ones being two of favourites. Watching these played a big part in shaping my sense of humour and as such influenced my practice a great deal. At their best, or at least in my humble opinion, these shows revolved around a small cast of unique characters interacting with one another, often in a single simple location with little to no outside influence. It’s these shows that made me and my brother pick up a camera and start attempting our own ‘T.V. Shows’ as kids and without this I doubt I would be making films today.  However, being sitcoms, these shows are very episodic in their storytelling, with little narrative flowing from episode to episode. This means that they’re are not able to tell as grand or epic a tale as I would like to make.

Homestuck has recently been a big influence on my practice. Having been introduced to in earlier this year by a friend it has quickly become one of my favourite stories to experience. There are many things I love about Homestuck but it is the characters that I love most, each is very well developed and feels like a real person with thoughts and feelings. The audience, here meaning me, cares very much about the characters and becomes intensely immersed in the story, something that I wish to bring into my own practice. Homestuck’s method of storytelling is also of particular interest, the story starts out simply, with a character, a simple location and a straight forward premise/motivation. The world, narrative and back-story are all then aloud to organically grow/build as the story progresses, until the point where it is now a truly epic tale. This method has been a great influence on me, my own method of focusing too much on back-story and setting proving not to work for my practice. I intend to use a similar method for my own storytelling in the future.

Over the past year I have begun to read a lot more and have discovered two of my favourite authors, Jules Vern and H.P. Lovecraft. Jules Vern’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is what got me into reading. Vern’s writing, to me, perfectly creates a feeling of adventure, scientific curiosity and a love of exploration that I have grown very fond of and would like to bring into my own practice.  H.P. Lovecraft’s stories are a very different beast and are my current favourite brand of horror. His dark tales aren’t just horrifying, they are drenched in an overwhelming feeling of dread and evitable doom. His tales often warn of an unimaginable and unknowable terror that is beyond the feeble comprehension of man and it is this fear of the unknowable that is at the heart of his horror. I would say that Lovecraft is my main influence in regard to horror and I certainly intend to bring some of his influence into my own practice.

Serio Leone, the director behind The Good, The Bad and The Ugly and Once Upon a Time in the West, has also notably influenced my practice. His westerns feel epic and I really admire how they take their time and never rush though the story. They are a slow and quiet build of tension until the final climax of the film that puts you on the edge of your seat. It’s because of him that I wish my films to take their time and have a slow pace.

I feel that my practice is suitable to more than just film. I am also keen to pursue other creative outlets, for example writing books and music. I wish to read more and bring more of what I like about authors like Lovecraft and Vern into my own practice by experimenting with writing stories in their style. I intend to maintain the creative network I have found whilst at college and fully intend to keep creating in order to improve my skills. I intend to explore a number of methods of ‘getting my work out there’, for example podcasting, film festivals. My primary intention to build an audience through the creation of a YouTube account, not only do I think that YouTube is a great method of creating an audience, I also really enjoy it and think that my practice will suit the format.