My first obvious influence comes from my own life, like all good artists. I'm a poet, and a lot of my personal poems reflect a gray, bleak depiction of my life, the way I see it through the lenses of my depression. I want to bring that into my production through the art direction and the underlying message - making it a bleak, mournful ode.I feel like this kind of take will give me an aesthetic I can reasonably accomplish, and use to tell a good story.
In the same vein, another place I'm taking inspiration from is Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go. I'm currently reading it for my Aice Lit A class and its definitely one of my favorite books ever. I particularly like two quotes used to describe the book. The first is by Ishiguro himself, "I pictured England on an overcast day, flat bare fields, weak sunshine, drab streets, abandoned farms, empty roads... I wanted to paint an England with the kind of stark, chilly beauty I associate with certain remote rural areas and half-forgotten seaside towns." I really love this description and idea of 'half-forgotten seaside towns.' As the plot for my production slowly forms, I want to dip more into this idea of abandoned/isolated towns and areas, like the fringes of humanity slowly dying off and disappearing. My idea for bringing in this idea of isolation is through the characters, mainly only focusing on a singular character, and making her interactions with other people limited.
The second quote I liked was, "The limits of her language are the limits of her understanding. She does not have the words to rebel against her cruel destiny." Here, John Mullan, an author for the guardian, describes the main character of Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, Katherine, and reflects on the way her simplistic grasp on language stops her from rebelling against the system. I think it would be interesting to explore the concept of a facet of society holding us back from our perfect happiness, but instead of focusing on language, focusing on the current state of society vs. a world in which society's grip on us is much much smaller. (Can you see my story starting to come together? LOL.)
Moving away from literature, there are a few other places I want to take inspiration from. First is Disney's Tomorrowland (2015), especially the set up to the movie, the pin that takes the main character to a glimpse of Tomorrowland. The second and third films influencing my production are 'Where the Wild Things Are' and 'Children Who Chase Lost Voices,' in particular, the plot device of an adventure in a foreign land to explore a character's own problems.
The last place I'm taking inspiration from is actually another personal memory, and an actual place. The summer before my junior year (so almost two summers ago,) I went to camp at Dartmouth College, and one of my most vivid memories from that trip was a giant forest behind the college campus. My friends and I went hiking there on our last day, and the scenery was absolutely gorgeous. There was a particular bit, right at the bend of the river, where you could walk into the forest and there was this flat stretch of rock, and if everything around you was silent, and the light shined in just the right way, you could almost convince yourself you were in a whole 'nother world, ready to go on an adventure. So yea. That's definitely going into my production.I know everything seems kind of jumbled right now, but just trust me, it'll all make sense once I finish the story outline.
Bye for now!
-Isa Ollie Mason
which there could be a little sun and vibrancy, I wanted to paint an England with the kind of stark,
chilly beauty I associate with certain remote rural areas and half-forgotten seaside towns.
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