Bailey Harding

film enthusiast 🎬

[hardingb]

WAVES

I felt extremely fortunate to work with such an incredible group of creative collaborators and practitioners during my time in assembling our project titled WAVES. Our project focussed on creating video and audio information which was displayed via waveforms. This project is about altering an individuals perception about the world around them. It also aims to help other individuals realise that we only experience the world through our own unique lenses. 

For us, creating a unique project that was different from others was our main priority. Music, dance and sound is an art and medium we experience in our everyday lives on a daily basis. Whether that is through study, exercising, dancing, attending a party, or sitting in a cafe, it consumes our movement and how we chose to interact with different forms of audio. It helps to inspire and influence individuals, which is something we longed to achieve with our project.

For me, I believe my most successful contribution with WAVES was co-directing and participating in the Behind The Scenes footage. I was able to capture our performers simply having fun. They expressed themselves through their music and dance creatively, and for me, it embodied what we aimed our project to be; creative and unique. I was not only able to capture the performers, but I was also able to show the creative and positive environment of my group members. Their passion and drive to help produce and bring this project to life was inspiring to me. I was able to watch their energy express through their filmmaking. 

Another highlight was my contribution to dancing both during our filming for the project, and at our exhibit. With my group members, we danced alongside our artists to help encourage them during filming. Lastly, we danced together, along with other individuals who visited our exhibit, to celebrate our project and the work we all put into it. Again, this proved the effects of music, dance and sound as it brought people together.

[hardingb]

Ignite the Passion...flix

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have a romance with a millionaire race car driver, an Italian professor, a former NFL recruit, a cute bartender with a good heart, or a selfless bodyguard who must protect you at all costs? Well, let me introduce you to the steamy world of Passionflix, an online movie platform that brings racy romance novels to life on screen. 

A year ago, I was introduced to Passionflix through one of my friends who had watched ‘The Hollywood Dirt’, one of the first feature films provided on the website. Despite the delivery of cheesy dialogue, long close-up shots of intimate gazes, and acting that made me cringe internally, I found myself invested in this fictional world. 

With a similar filmmaking style to the Hallmark channel, Passionflix is an independent company founded by filmmaker Tosca Musk, alongside three other women, who’s mission is too produce and create soft-core romance adaptions for swooning fangirls - just like me - and supporters of the genre. 

I’ll admit that I am a sucker for B’Grade films, and I do consider Passionflix to fall under this category. However, I personally found that the filmmakers produce authentic content with the novels they turn into film adaptations. Every word, touch, look, costume, location, and scene are brought directly to life from the authors imagination to a visual representation onscreen.

The typical storylines of the innocent girl coincidentally meeting the brooding bad boy, which happens to be my favourite narrative when it comes to romance movies, is the general theme to the novels chosen for the platform. And they’re classics to watch. For me though, it was the mini-series Driven, and the feature film Gabriel’s Inferno that had me hooked… and I cannot wait for their sequels.

If you want to dive into this cheesy, romance world, I suggest you pop some popcorn, invite your gal-pals over and buy some tissues for the heart wrenching stories you will embark on. Passionflix is awaiting your arrival… today!

[mychicitalianlife-deactivated20]

[ohdisney]

For a true hero isn't measured by the size of his strength, but by the strength of his heart.

[hardingb]

Strength of a Hero 💪🏼

[hardingb]

Going The Distance

“Have you ever had a dream or something that you wanted so badly, you would do anything for it in order to make it happen?” A determined Hercules passionately states to Chiron, the trainer of heroes. Well, in my case, I did, and I had my creative dream turned into a reality… and it went like this;

After hearing the incorrect story from two slightly hopeless tour guides in an Ancient Greek Museum, Five Muses welcome you on a light hearted journey of discovery, courage and love, as they tell the unerring story of our hero, the mighty god Hercules.

From an innocent brainstorm inspired by the aesthetic of Disney’s Hercules, to a completed script eventually titled ‘Strength Of A Hero’ written in Courier New font, my theatrical dream would soon enough be brought to life from paper to centre stage. Who would’ve thought that a story secretly written on the sidelines, while participating in another theatrical production, would be adapted into the next high school play? 

Well, definitely not me!

However, my narrative was heard, and in 2018, the Globe Theatre and a biennial high school production invited its fellow peers to join the cast and crew on an unexpected journey, set in Ancient Greece. 

I believe that theatre has the power to allow artists to communicate stories, events, and journeys that we wish to share before a live audience. For me, I was fortunate enough to attend a high school which allowed their theatrical students to produce their own creative content and share their stories with the rest of the world through drama. 

Creating ‘Strength Of A Hero’ allowed me to express my creativity, voice and narrative through the three things I love; writing, directing and acting. If you have a concept, idea, story, or even a dream, share it with the world and embrace your creative identity.

[hardingb]

The Underrated Female Heroine

Some say Sarah Connor, others say Ripley or Princess Leia, but for me, Sidney Prescott, the protagonist in Scream, is one of the most underrated female heroines in cinematic history. 

Though she is constantly tormented by the mysterious voice through the phone, and the haunting memories of her mothers murder, Sidney shows exceptional character traits of bravery and courage, even through the vulnerable times.  

Scream showed the importance of memorable and powerful female characters, in contrast to other slasher films that feature the typical attractive “dumb blonde” type. An example I loved in the film is when Sidney answers the phone, and is asked if she likes scary movies from a mysterious voice; 

“What's the point? They're all the same. Some stupid killer stalking some big-breasted girl who can't act who is always running up the stairs when she should be running out the front door. It's insulting.” 

An iconic quote! 

However, this quote made me realise that in contrast to typical female characters such as “the dumb blonde” type, Sidney is headstrong and vastly different compared to other teenagers/characters represented in slasher films. She is not a superhero and does not inherit superpowers in order to defeat the ferocious antagonist. The only power Sidney has, is her internal strength and the ability to just be human. 

Sidney is logical, and a character I admire greatly. What if you were in a similar situation? What do you think your outcome would be? All I know, is that I would strive to have the ‘Sidney Prescott’ syndrome, despite being immensely scared and afraid of death.

Scream places it’s female characters at the centre of the action, which is something that I admire and love about this film. I praise the screenwriter Kevin Williamson, and director Wes Craven, for bringing not only these characters, but Sidney Prescott from page to screen.   

[movingtocrowbiwan-blog]

[oldhollywoodfilms]

A crew member lights a cigarette for Rita Hayworth on the set of Gilda (1946).