First Steps - General story building.

So here we are! As the first step of the project, I wanted to focus on building the story and the world that the story lives in. I feel like for me, that's always the best place to start in terms of building a story because by knowing the world, I can determine what external factors motivate my characters.

First I started by defining the genre. I wanted to take all my notes on postmodernism and use them to create a short film with a deeper meaning, something that was both beautiful, yet tragic, not meant to present a solution, but pose the audience with a question, and leave them with a feeling of emptiness, and a yearning for something more.

So when it came to the genre, I decided to go with magical realism, a genre that presents a mix between realism/contemporary drama and high fantasy. I felt like the use of a realistic setting and world, mixed with magical elements would serve my purposes well, and let me dip into uncanny valley sorts of plots and actions, without the need for a full high fantasy short film. As Siobhan Spera writes in her article on magic realism in film,  "it’s our world, but magic is used as a tool to help us understand it better."

Small side note: while doing research on magic realism, I found out that it actually has its roots in Latin American literature, like Gabriel García Márquez with his novel “100 Years of Solitude,” which being Latin American myself, I found to be slightly ironic that I unknowingly drew inspiration from my roots, and oddly comforting to be following in the footsteps of my Latin American contemporaries.

Examples of magic realism films include;

• Alfonso Arau’s "Like Water for Chocolate"
• Guillermo Del Toro's "Pan's Labyrinth"
• Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s "Amélie"
• Paul King's "Paddington" 

Another genre/school of thought that will most definitely have an influence on this production is dreampunk. As explained by Robert Berg, a writer and blogger on the topic of films, dream punk is "a literary subgenre descended from steampunk and cyberpunk that differs from them in its inclusion of elements of dream logic." He continues on to say, "dreampunk is surreal, edgy, beautiful, and terrible all at once. Hidden meanings, symbolism, and the prevalence of dream or fairy tale logic are common." Given the ideas I have for my film so far, I feel like this will be a very key interpretation/ genre I can look to for inspiration and conventions. 

Examples of dreampunk based media include;

• Velvet Goldmine
• Alice in Wonderland
• Your Name
• Where the Wild Things Are
• Altered States

I'm especially interested in Where the Wild Things Are as a piece of media to draw inspiration from; I very much want to make a film that incorporates those elements of escapism and adventure.

So this is pretty much all I have for now! The next blog post will be about the story itself, and what specific areas and pieces I'm drawing inspiration from. 

Thanks for now!

Isa Ollie Mason