I have been in a very nostalgic mood recently. It's a mix of the fact that there's been a lot of 'big' anniversaries and work milestones for me over the past two months (more on that in my previous blog post), and also because I feel like I'm on the cusp of an exciting new chapter in my career. So, for May's blog post, I thought I'd look back one more time, before looking forward and sharing updates on what's coming next for me.
I've told the story of what first inspired my filmmaking journey countless times, in numerous interviews and past blog posts; my Dad kindly raised me and my brother on fantasy novels and artwork, so our house was filled with Tolkien memorabilia, and when The Fellowship of the Ring was released in 2001, he took us both to the cinema to see it. That one cinema trip changed my life because it made me want to make films - and I've never looked back.
But the things that inspire you can change and evolve over the years. It isn't just about one sole source. You encounter lots of little things throughout your life which, combined, make you the artist - and the person - you are today. So I'm going to use this blog post to highlight the other little bits and pieces which fed into my creative subconscious along the way, all of which I still feel are reflected somehow in my work now.
The Fellowship of The Ring and its subsequent sequels may have made me want to be a filmmaker, but my love of films came a little earlier. The first films I really remember loving were the 1980s sword and sorcery films I enjoyed with my family, and the ones that stick in my memory the most - for better or for worse! - are Dragonslayer, Hawk the Slayer, Jason and the Argonauts, and Sam Neill's Merlin (ok, that last one was technically a television series, but it was still a seminal piece of work to my very young mind!!).
I also loved the classic Disney animations of the time. The first film I remember seeing in cinemas was a re-release of The Jungle Book, and I adored Hercules too, but The Beauty & The Beast was and is one of my all time favourite films. That film was probably my introduction to all things Gothic, and it's one of the first times I was really aware of a film's production design and score.
Another film which had a similar impact on me was 1995's Casper. Because this was a live-action film, unlike Beauty & the Beast, I really noticed the film's production design, and the film's score struck an emotional chord with me, even though I was just 6 years old at the time. I remember that cinema trip quite clearly (I got free glow-in-the-dark Casper stickers!), and that film's score is still played on regular rotation as part of my Film & TV playlist on Spotify.
But while we're on the subject of music, I still remember pretty much everything about the first time I watched American Beauty. Thomas Newman's score affected me like no other score had done before, or has since (much as I love Howard Shore's Lord of the Rings scores as well, particularly all the Rohan themes!). There's something about the main theme from American Beauty that makes my heart briefly skip a beat every time I hear it. Part of me feels sad that I may never feel that way about another score for as long as I live - but I hope I'll be proven wrong.
American Beauty was one of my favourite films for years. I'd watch it just before directing a short film, sometimes even the night before, as a sort of good luck charm. Although I don't feel as comfortable watching it these days (due to the allegations surrounding its lead actor), I'm really grateful for all the memories and inspiration that film has given me.
The American Beauty poster is still one of my all-time favourite pieces of graphic design, though; it was the first poster I ever really noticed, as it was plastered on the side of a bus stop in my old home town and wasn't removed until a long time after the film's release. It was so simple and striking that it made me want to find out more and watch the film - although because of my age, I had to wait a few more years. It wasn't long after I turned 18 that I strode into a shop and bought the DVD, and then watched it as soon as I brought it back to the holiday accommodation I was staying in.
(Another poster currently on my wall is the main artwork from Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, which is also one of my favourite films - and it was my introduction to Ben Whishaw, who is top of the list of actors I want to work with!)
One more film I have to give a shout out to is Moulin Rouge!, which is still a film I adore and only rank second under the Lord of the Rings trilogy. When we were teenagers, myself and a friend of mine rented the DVD (!) and watched Moulin Rouge! as inspiration for a 1930s/Bugsy Malone-style gangster musical we were working on with our amateur dramatics group. We were disappointed to discover that the film was actually set in the 1890s-1900s, but that disappointment didn't last long because the film changed my entire approach to filmmaking! The evolving, eclectic nature of Baz Luhrmann's cinematography choices, combined with the film's kinetic, musical editing style, showed me that you could experiment, play and have fun with your filmmaking, rather than following strict, formulaic rules. I often still see influences of that film in my own work, whether I do it intentionally or not - for example, in the way I often hire redheaded female actors.
I've talked about the films that introduced me to Production Design, but what about Costume Design? As you may know, I started my film career in the Art and Costume Departments of numerous independent shorts, commercials, and features - and I have a nice introduction story for that side of my career as well. Way back in the late 90s, or maybe early 00s, I was on holiday with my family when I spotted a paper doll book in a shop, featuring most of the outfits the character Queen Amidala wore in Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace. Something about that book entranced me, and I begged my parents for it (we didn't have a lot of money at the time, but in my youthful naivety I wasn't aware of that fact, so I just kept on pestering them! Sorry Mum and Dad!). Eventually they gave in and bought me the book, and I stared at it in the car all the way home until I could finally disappear into my room and pop out all the little shapes. It was the first time I really saw costumes broken down like that, and my first experience of dressing a (paper) person in fantasy clothing, and the rest is history. Although I don't do costume or production design work any more, I'm still so glad that I started my career that way, and I'm still a big fan of those areas of filmmaking. I'm also kinda sad that I don't still have that book on my shelf.
My introduction to filmmaking as a short-form, sell-able medium came through watching music videos, as I think is the case for a lot of people. The first music videos I really remember were both by Fatboy Slim - Praise You and of course Weapon of Choice - but I didn't appreciate them at the time, as I was only a kid and I thought they were a bit too 'simple'(!!). But the big game-changer for me was the video for Fighter by Christina Aguilera, directed by the wonderful Floria Sigismondi, whose work I still love. Everything about that video sung to my gothy teen soul; it was one of my big inspirations for Lepidopterist nearly 20 years later, and I still dream of the day when I can make something on that scale for a client. Other music videos I remember from my youth are Lazy by X-Press 2 and David Byrne, for its inventive use of production design, and Kate Bush's iconic American variant video for Wuthering Heights - partly because I've always been fascinated by Kate Bush (I got compared to her a lot when I was a kid), and partly because I had to sit back and wait for HOURS for her video to download via a... shall we say... certain music and video sharing platform named after a fruit that all the kids used in the days before YouTube had such a wide library of content available!
And finally, I want to recognise two women who have had a big influence on my filmmaking in the early days. Back when I first applied to film school, I came from a small town, surrounded by supportive friends and family, and I had little knowledge of the outside world and how cruel the film industry could be. I never even considered that my gender might be an 'issue', because I thought I'd just be judged on my filmmaking ability and passion like everyone else. When I started my degree, someone asked me if I thought there should be more female directors; I didn't even understand the question, so I just laughed and said, "no. I don't want any more competition!" Oh, foolish youth.
During my time at university, I gradually learned that working female directors were a rarity (they still are today, to an extent, although things are slowly improving), but my tutors introduced me to the work of two incredible women who had been able to share their work with the world: Maya Deren and Agnes Varda. Until then, my filmmaking heroes had all been men, but finally I had two women to name among them - and these days, I've added many more to that list. Maya Deren's poetic, unusual filmmaking was particularly influential to me, which is obvious if you watch my student film Deep Red Sun, as it's practically a rip-off of Deren's Meshes of the Afternoon!
Right, this blog post has - as usual - ended up being longer than I intended, so I'll leave it there. Time to put the nostalgia to bed for now, and look forward to all the wonderful things that will likely spark my creativity and mold my style further in the coming years. In the meantime, I need to get back to work. It's a very exciting time for me right now, although it means juggling a lot of things at once, and I look forward to telling you all about it in my much needed 'Summer Update' blog post, which you can expect to drop online within the next two months.
Comments