The Shining (1980) directed by Stanley Kubrick is one of the very few horror films I enjoy. thanks to my squeamish self and many nights of sleep paralysis I can get a bit too anxious to watch a horror film however this masterpiece by Kubrick makes me feel welcome into the genre. with his signature zoom in long shots, it makes me feel like i’m in the film myself at the Overlook Hotel running from my manic father who has just decided everyone around him should die… feels like home! being in the mind of Danny Torrance and what he sees feels less voyeuristic but more inclusive like I’m Danny himself. the film gives the eerie tone you would want in a horror film without giving any typical jump scares or unnecessary screaming just to give you that rush of adrenaline. it made me want to keep watching to see what secrets this hotel had to offer and why the previous caretaker went so mad and murdered his wife and children. the contrasts in the film made it even more interesting with the wholesomeness of Shelley Duvall’s character Wendy Torrance with her wide eyes and gorgeous smile, which makes it more uneasy to watch when the bathroom door is being slashed open by her own husband as she cries for help.

the casting in this film makes it a brilliant adaption from the Stephen King novel with Jack Nicholson’s natural evil look to him that still has that tint of charm to make him more alluring. his psychotic reassurance to Wendy makes you feel like you want to trust him but the angled eyebrows and the menacing twang in his eye gives you that shiver down your spine, like someone has just walked over your cold grave.

the artistic abilities from Kubrick and cinematographer John Alcott makes it aesthetically pleasing to watch a young boy see dead people and pools of blood while his murderous father lays his lips on a dead corpse. there is so much memorabilia from the film itself that makes you wish you were there when it was first released to see the pop culture references appear one by one to see the real iconic-ness of this cinematic masterpiece. for it’s genre it steps outside of the box, adding more to that ‘uneasy’ feeling as the bright colours invite you in instead of the cliché colours of black and red. it outlines what the 70s were with the saturation of colours and it brings a tear to my eye as i admire it.

this film easily inspired me from the first few minutes of watching it and it makes you wish why films aren’t being made like this anymore but this type of artiste can only really come from the man himself, Stanley Kubrick.

for an assignment we had to explore the terms of film on film. i was using archive footage from almost two years ago and zooming closer on it as it got closer to the present day, it was a very last minute thing as life can get a bit hectic sometimes but it reflected how i was feeling and it meant more personal to myself than anyone else.

indie films are what started my love for film.

it’s a style so original and ‘independent’, hence the name, that any filmmaker can simple make it memorable and eccentric. films such as Moonlight (2016 dir. Barry Jenkins), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974 dir. Tobe Hooper) and Juno (2008 dir. Jason Reitman). with this widely artistic and creative genre it can be made into any style meaning most of the conventions for an independent film is more on the physical side than the narrative.

on the commercial side, an independent film is a film made outside of a high-end production company which gives meaning to the world ‘independent’ and giving the director the freedom to make a film however they like. this means that funding and the budget will be low. due to the lack of budgeting and big production companies the amount of advertising used is very little or sometimes even none, most indie films aren’t well known meaning huge companies willing to pay a huge amount of money won’t contact the production team to get their advertisements included in the film. as to the filmmaker, it’s about the artistic ability to make a film rather than making money itself.

this effects things such as set design, the crew, special effects and sometimes even the quality. public locations and already existing places will most likely be used and these locations can be symbolic or related to the creators of the film. for example, the location of Moonlight is the exact area where both the director Barry Jenkins and writer Tarell Alvin McCraney were brought up. on rare occasions, actors will be less-known however it can depend on if the actor themselves wants to be known for the artistry or the money.

the shots themselves are simple and use the art of cinematography to get those memorable shots. this is due to the film’s budget once again because they can’t afford fancy special effects such as green screens or motion-tracking to make out of the ordinary characters. with the freedom given of the creativity from the filmmakers, it gave them opportunities to give a certain technique that would then be connoted to that filmmakers name.

the low budget effects would then affect the narrative itself. with simple and powerful shots came a powerful narrative to draw the audience in, things such as personal growth is a big topic. there’s less predictable plots and not as many narrative theories used like Propp’s character theory. dialogue will seem less cliché, more experimental and realistic. the realism of the dialogue is mostly due to limited themes of the film itself, the use of long scenes and the fact these films don’t have big special effect action scenes therefore to fill the time frame of the film itself they will have longer scenes of dialogue to keep it interesting for the audience.

independent films are my favourite genre of film because of its freedom and integrity.

my favourite part of writing a screenplay or even starting a new film idea, is the characters. they’re the glue of the whole idea and introducing them is a key thing when writing your screenplay so your audience can love them as much as you did. love at first sight, if you will.

i wanted to introduce a character from a story that’s been in development for almost 2 years? this is the first in-depth film idea that i’ve ever written and it will be held close to my heart. this is the first page of the screenplay i’ve edited after a while of abandoning it, introducing one of two main characters Arden Arian.

EVALUATION

After reading screenplays from films such as Queen & Slim, Logan and Midsommar. I hoped I introduced my favourtie character in a clear and intruiging way. I gave Arden the ‘flare’ she has at first greetings with the audience, her independence and her fiery attitude. This story does tend to be a love story but I steer away from the clichés more often. To give it more of a Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet (1996) theme, which is the main inspiration for this idea.

https://youtu.be/bVoTJcDQY1chttp://

a small film of a girl applying the last step of her beauty routine, but what is her routine? is it an hour of crying to her reflection before even tapping a brush onto the face?

Becoming a filmmaker can be difficult, especially when you’re surrounded by people who have been in the industry for god-knows-how long! Thanks to the wonderful world of education (and google) I’ve learnt some of these words and been able to use them casually when talking about films.

mise en scene = this is how you make a film belong in it’s place. you surround it by things to do with theme to make it blend into the scene perfectly. translated from french ‘putting on stage’. therefore you can imagine it’s literally how the french say it. you decorate a set to look a certain way (e.g. lighting, makeup, decorations, sets, costumes and all that!)

shot reverse shot = this technique is mostly used when two characters are having a conversation. one shot is based on person A looking at person B during a conversation (or maybe even creepily staring at them!) while person B is off-screen. then it will cut to person B looking straight back at person A. it shows these two people are in the same place, looking at each other or in conversation.

pan/track/zoom = for all the camera lovers, these are technical terms for how a camera moves during a shot.

pan being a move from point A to B in any direction where you might see an object in focus staying in the same place, the camera is basically moving around it.

track is as simple as it says in the name. a tracking movement will use an object of focus (it can be anything!) and moves with it.

zoom being a more common one people will know, it’s when the camera moves inward onto an object whether the actual camera is moving closer to an object of focus or actually using the lens to optical zoom onto an object of focus.

psychoanalysis = being closely related to critical theory, marxist film theory and apparatus theory. it’s tied to the concept of emotions and how certain things in films will make the characters feel, or even the people watching it.

suture = it’s a technique used by filmmakers to immerse the audience into the film for them to forget that it’s actually the camera watching everything going on, rather than them watching certain events happen from their perspective.

the gaze = male gaze is a popular thing that is (sadly) used in films to this day. it’s where a female character is sexualised by dressing her in tight and revealing clothing to satisfy the male audience.

audience = our trusty customers as filmmakers! these are the people who actually spend their time consuming the content that we put out there. there are all kinds of target audiences that different filmmakers adhere to, such as action films with guns and fighting are more for an older audience (also preferably a more masculine audience too.)

representation = something very important in the film industry. this is the amount of recognition a certain group of people will get as well as how they are treated. a big example of this is Moonlight (2016) directed by Barry Jenkins and it’s representation of both the black community and LGBTQ+ community.

montage = a collection of images to create a sequence. this can be used in films for memories such as when a character dies, a character might sit there and contemplate through the memories they had with said deceased character. this will be known as a montage.