It's the Write Life! @tamjoliebren - Tumblr Blog

And so... It really does begin!

Well here we go, after an absence of about five years (slight exaggeration) on this blogging site, it was about time to ditch some dirt, scrub up and get some more work on here.

Up til now this has been a reflective journal for my film studies a year ago. Loads has been drawn, erased, written, made and filmed since then though and it's time to start networking and taking the salt by the pepper :)

This blog will cover all the projects I'm working on right now, from drawings to my work as a green researcher to personal projects all in the hope of sharing and caring with fellow artisans :) It's going to concentrate mostly though, on my journey of becoming an author and the the process, trials and tribulations of getting there.

There's 3 books in the pipeline - A fantasy/adventure epic, a book about caring for Bearded Dragons (love them so much!) and a children's book. They are all at various stages at the moment and I'm hoping that by meeting you all through this, means we can help to support each other on our adventures into the creative unknown!

Ciao for now :)

Tam

#children's book #fiction #non-fiction #bearded dragons #how to #fantasy #adventure novel #quirky #whatarewegettingourselvesinto

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For the next week (or so) you can get your hands on a print copy of Fur-Lined Ghettos #3 / #4 for just £3 - and that includes postage!

UK only. (postage overseas costs more than the magazine does. & that kinda sucks)

First tutorial of Year 3

Tomorrow our group (1A) have our first tutorial. I look forward to discussing our initial project thoughts and ideas, as well as exploring in further detail how and where we can take these in pre-production and through to the completed production process.

I've got a fair amount of material ready to demonstrate my intentions for my short fiction film 'The Crutch', including short story, draft script and reference pictures and text. I look forward to presenting these for discussion tomorrow and hearing the tutor and group's views on them and ideas on how best to take my project further. I'm also really excited by what I've already heard about the rest of the group's projects and looking forward to discussing these in depth tomorrow. There's a great mix of format in our group (two films, two documentaries) and I really believe they all have a lot of potential to be crafted into something special, with effective and strong narratives which should appeal well to audiences. Hopefully we'll leave our time together tomorrow with finer ideas on how to unlock this!

Feminism in Focus

As my previous end of term essay and future research report are both based on issues regarding feminism film theory, I decided to look at these principles in relation to my own film as they strongly correlate with points of interest surrounding my own female protagonist, Rose.

At no point did I set out to make this film a 'feminist' feature, though given the strong, female driven narrative which is apparent regarding my principle character, Rose, I thought it would be interesting to explore how my film could be classed as an example of typically feminist filmmaking through it's similarities and shared values of feminist film theory.

Some more imagery reference for Rose, my principle protagonist. These images reflect the look and characterization I envisioned for this character since I first came up with the story idea. All these images portray Heather Mason from the 'Silent Hill' series of games and books except the poster featuring my protagonist Rose, which is for the film 'Another Life'.

Some inspirational imagery for my three Shaman's Assistants. I always envisioned them as small, endearing creatures who were innocent yet slaves to a terrible force against them. I think when I felt moved by them in my ideas stages, I knew I'd reached the point that the audience might be able to identify with them and hopefully be moved as emotionally as I felt in creating them.

Some inspirational/reference material for Malestrome's character in 'The Crutch'.

In Europe, producers ask: 'Are the characters intriguing, is the protagonist interesting?'

Lynda Miles - Producer (The Commitments)

It's very freeing doing independent or lower-budget movies - your character is no longer bound by the rules of likeability

Anthony Hopkins - Actor

Notes on narrative construction

'People go to the cinema to see themselves on the screen. As an actor, people must identify with you. You cannot hold up a picture and say 'this is me', you hold up a mirror and say 'this is you'. - Michael Caine, Actor

I thought I'd dedicate a post to outlining my intentions in establishing audience identification for my protagonist Rose in the story and script of the film. Audience identification is extremely important because if your audience fails to relate to your characters in any way, a connection is much less likely to be established and people will more than likely lose interest in the story you are trying to tell. Michael Caine sums this up perfectly in his quote (above): 'You cannot hold up a picture and say 'this is me', you hold up a mirror and say 'this is you'.

Establishing a character's point of view early on in the story gives the audience a greater chance of seeing the world and challenges through the character's eyes and therefore help to build a relationship with them. As a result of these subconcious links, people can begin to care for a character and identify with them and this is all key in how an audience is affected emotionally.

Rose's character was already very strong in my mind before I began studying the process of creating character identification. Here's how my character bears up to the principles of audience identification and why I made the choices I did.

From the outset, Rose inspires 'Sympathy', a much utilized identification device. When we meet her, she is very much a victim of some tragedy we don't know anything about (this in itself being a mystery to tease the audience's curiosity as we never actually find out what happened to her in the beginning). She goes on to be placed in severe jeopardy, another identification device. I wrote Rose's jeopardy scenario into the scenes where she wakes up to find herself in a dangerous and foreboding world, 'The Otherworld'. Inhabited by a demonic and brutal force of evil, my hope is that the audience will identify with Rose's plight and feel for her and her dangerous situation and be curious to find out how she escapes (if she manages to escape at all). I haven't placed much emphasis on the likeability of Rose's character, as I felt that the mystery surrounding her, her situation and plight would be more effective than creating her as a laugh-a-minute individual who wakes up to find herself in a world from Hell. I think taking this approach leads me well onto the next device, 'curiosity'. I've tried to keep the curiosity factor burning and alive throughout the film and it weaves throughout all the characters and events. Essentially the entire narrative as a whole is one big curious event. In Rose's case, the curiosity is sparked by not knowing much about who she is, where she comes from, what her initial situation is or where it will lead. I've been really careful to envelope and entwine this device throughout the narrative in order to hold the audience, hopefully, to the end of the film.

This is a maquette design created by my friend Harry who is BA trained in prosthetics work. It's an example of playing around with ideas and what could be achieved in the timescale we have to create the demon in time for shooting. I'm already after a particular look for both the Malestrome's and Rose's masks but experimenting in this way gives a good sense of what can be achieved and how this relates to a budget and specific timescale (all things which need to be considered in the professional film industry).

A design concept for the Shaman's Assistants in the film, created by Mandy Jean Jordan :) We had a chat about how I envisioned them and together came up with this design which incorporates the colours and vibrancy of their master (the Shaman) and the endearing, innocence factor. The assistants will otherwise be dressed in black to keep in line with the 'creature-like' appearance I'd most like to achieve.

Summer of intense Year 3 prep

It's been a few days since I last posted but I'm happy to report that things are still moving forward with regard to the film and progressing nicely. I've learnt so much about the processes of filmmaking over the summer by advancing with project and also from thoroughly studying all my film related books, analysing the makings of my film collection and visiting a couple of film exhibitions I mangaed to catch over the holidays. I haven't had many hours of work in my job so I used to this to my best advantage and threw myself into studying film at home (it's become my own little film course almost :) and preparing well in time for the start and the challenges of year 3.

I've thought about my dissertation alot throughout the course so far and would very much like to concentrate on the subject of feminism and how this in interpreted in film (feminism film theory), with close emphasis on it's relationships within Audience Reception Theory and Genre Theory and how these effect narrative character construction and ultimately whether or not my findings are an advantage or disadvantage to Hollywood's values and intentions as a whole. I've been reading up on my set list of books for this area of study and feel confident to take this to the next stage in the lessons planned for our dissertation writing in year 3.

Progress on my film has been steady and like all projects of this nature, has inevitably experienced it's own set of pitfalls which I've had to overcome. I have two of my principle cast members already committed to the project and a third who yesterday had to unfortunately pull out of the project due to other commitments. I completely understand his decision and although I'm really sad to see him go (he's a great bloke! :) in a way his leaving has also provided me with further experience of the true nature of filmmaking and it's inevitable problems and how to resolve these in creative and effective ways. I am now actively looking for a new cast member to take on the role. These things happen all the time in the working world of film and I'm grateful to be experiencing first hand issues like this, plus having the chance to overcome them for the benefit of the project and my aim to become a professional filmmaker as a whole.

I contacted lots of possible location spaces over the holidays including Castle Museum, Dragon Hall and Jurnets Bar, all locally based in Norwich (which I've kept in mind due to the locality of the film being made). I especially hope to hear back from these three locations as they most presented the dungeon-like environment I've been hoping so much to achieve in order to create a realistic and sensible setting for the lair of the Malestrome demon in 'The Otherworld'. I'm still waiting to hear back from Castle Museum although a lovely lady took time to reply with assistance about how to make/aquire a realistic looking 'Holy Water Sprinkler' style mace. Dragon Hall and Jurnets Bar have both agreed to provide us with filming space at their premises and I'm delighted to have secured this with Jurnets Bar due to their extremely appropriate looking bar space which fits my requirements ideally. I've included a few pictures of the Jurnets Bar space which I'll be using above, to give an idea of the set for 'The Otherworld'. Although not yet ready to give these locations an exact date, only the month as to when we'll be shooting (something I'm unable to determine at this moment in time), they've been very understanding of this and agreed to allow us to use the space, which is a fantastic example of good faith and fab teamwork on their part! :)

Sourcing my actors so far has been an interesting and entertaining experience. I put out adverts on the East Anglia Actors Network recently (which is how I heard from Martin Atkinson, before he unfortunately had to leave the project) and thought about actors I'd seen in other locally produced films whose look and performances had stood out to me. As a visual thinker, I'm constantly storing away images of things or people which I think might be of future use or even just fantastic inspiration. I find them really easy to remember and often recall who or what has struck me for all kinds of projects, art or film related. This is how I first managed to consider Gemma Buskell for the role of Rose and Adam Tomas Burton as the Shaman. I'd seen Gemma as the title character in a fantastic locally produced film entitled 'Another Life'. Many things about her led me to get in touch with her about considering the role of Rose which luckily for me, she accepted :) Gemma also has expert training in martial arts which is an added bonus as choreographing the battle scene between her and the Malestrome together will come in handy! Adam always stood out to me since seeing him in a film my classmates made called 'Fancy Pants'. It's a funny short which has some great characters and Adam's characterisation of his shady image in the film was wonderful :) Luckily he agreed to play the Shaman in my film! Both actors are really well suited to performing the audience identification points I created for both characters in the story (Roses's initial despair and vulnerability, the Shaman's kind and warm heart) which will hopefully be the key factor in emotionally affecting the audience how I most hope it will succeed in doing.

As the production design and location spaces for the film are fairly in place now, I'm going to concentrate on polishing up my story and script (another edit is always a good edit!) to make them as effective and tight as I can and continue putting adverts out for the remaining members of cast I need for the film. I'll be providing transport costs and food and drink on set as this is the least I can do to repay the generosity of everyone involved with the film so far and it's important to me that everyone enjoys themselves as much as possible on the shoot and are hopefully able to take away a fun and interesting experience away with them at the end :)

Earthlings - Trailer (by arsolto)

The more I work in film and endeavour to find out more about it, the more I hope to become a professional documentary filmmaker when I leave university.

I've always been interested in documentary as a medium and enjoyed them even before I considered becoming a filmmaker for a living. Being extremely passionate about animals and their welfare and social inequalities, to the point I'm very outspoken about these issues, has always ensured that I've exposed myself to a wide and varied array of documentary material by a wide range of first class filmmakers, from Nick Broomfield (who's documentary on serial killer Aileen Wournos hit a raw chord) to David Lynch.

This video is a trailer for the award winning documentary 'Earthlings', by director Sean Monson and is narrated by Hollywood actor Joaquin Phoenix. It intelligently and truthfully exposes the daily workings of all the industries which utilise animals which are routinely and callously abused in the process to keep up with humanity's demand for animal products. It's an excellent example of first-class filmmaking and I aspire to make documentaries with messages like this in future.

This is Jeffers :) He's my favourite mascot and will be appearing in the movie, in the Shaman's house as he's appropriate to the scene, so keep an eye out for him! :)

My hope is to include him somewhere in every future film project I make where appropriate, as a small signature of my Psykey Films produced projects.

Notes on 'The Crutch' - Revised Screenplay

The screenplay below looks higgledly piggledy and full of errors here on Tumblr as this is how it's presented itself and it's not letting me format it any further, but it is a fully formatted document on Celtx so hopefully I'll find a way of uploading that properly soon! :)

This script has been completed for some time now and I've revised it numerous times in accordance with the help of advice of fellow filmmakers and various filmmaking tomes :) It's been sent out to all current members of cast and crew and I had some nice feedback which was lovely, as I've really put my heart and soul into this story.

Hope you enjoy it :)

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