My Style & Influences

Having just had my first directing class in my 2nd year I thought it might be fun to draw up a list of all my possible influences and my 'style' as a film maker, we were talking today about why we want to direct and what we want to direct/write if given the opportunity. I don't think I've ever really tried to define my 'style' so lets see what I come up with!

Early Years

 I think as a kid a lot of what I was exposed to with regards to cartoons and TV shows helped shape who I am today, a lot of what I enjoyed back then, in some way I still enjoy now. Thunderbirds is a prime example, I'm a huge fan of sci-fi and as a film fan I much prefer the use of animatronics and models rather than CGI. There is also that 1950/60s vision of the future in Gerry Anderson's shows, things like Stingray and Captain Scarlet have inspired a sense of wonder and have subtlety influenced my approach to visuals and storytelling.

Other shows like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have also shaped my interests, I'm a fan of martial arts films and have always been intrigued by Eastern culture leading to the biggest influence of all; Japan! But we'll get to that latter.

In the early 90's kids all over loved two things; martial arts and dinosaurs. So when Power Rangers came out it was easily my favourite show of that era. So much so that the feature film I'm currently writing is going to be a huge love letter to the show and that era in general.

At this point I think it would be stupid to ignore the other large interest I'd developed around this time; I loved playing games. When I first got my SEGA Mega Drive I knew nothing of video games, I just loved Sonic. When the N64 came out I moved onto Nintendo and was opened up to a world I'd never really seen. Nintendo, in a way, has a Disney-esc catalogue of characters and worlds that just blew me away as a kid. Games like The Legend Of Zelda, Super Mario 64 and Banjo Kazooie pulled at my sense of adventure in a way no other medium ever had. Though, looking back, I can see how other games have perhaps influenced me also. Games like Duke Nukem 64, a parody of the 80's action genre, was perhaps an early sign of my love for B-Movies.

But no games have ever influenced me more than the following two. Firstly we have Poekmon! Pokemon embodied everything I loved about games, the sense of adventure and scope of it's world. I just wanted to be given my own Pokemon and set out on my own adventure, meet new people and see amazing new things. Around this time I had begun to write, just short stories, usually based on TV shows and games but some were original pieces. I knew I was never going to live in a world like Pokemon so I think I naturally started building my own worlds and stories in my own head.

The second game (pictured above), was Shenmue on the Dreamcast. This was the first game that I played that really tried to tell a mature story and it flowed with the pace and style of cinema. Shenmue was a revolution at the time, but no one was in love with it more than me. It had everything! A sprawling adventure set in Japan with a story dripping in martial art folklore and sensibilities. It's aged poorly but the mark it left on me, without doubt, is huge. The result of my love for the game came in the form of a short story called 'Harbour Lights'. A story of a young girl living alone in Hong Kong dealing with the loss of her father. I wrote it at the age of 16 and it helped me find the creative path I'm currently walking. I genuinely believe that I may be living a very different life if I hadn't been inspired to write 'Harbour Lights'.

I just want to touch a little bit about my sense of humour as I feel that the following TV shows have Americanised my humour considerably and when writing anything with a humorous twist I always seem to refer back to the likes of South Park and Beavis & Butthead. However the one show that has had a big effect on me and the world over is The Simpsons. I think a lot of my humour can be easily linked to these kinds of shows.

Now

I don't believe my interests have changed much over the years, I've just moved from one thing to the next, soaking in various shows and films, adding those experiences into my creative bank. In my early twenties I became a huge fan of the X-Files, yet another sci-fi show that has left it's own unique markings.

I was now fully absorbed in Japanese pop culture, specifically with its Anime. Ghost In The Shell pretty much cemented my love of sci-fi, but not just any sci-fi; Cyber Punk. It's no surprise that one of my all time favourite films is Blade Runner. Over the years its becoming harder to say that it IS my favourite film as my interests and influences sway back and forth but there is something about it that just seems magical to me. The cinematography, the music and the style of the film is just perfect and is the benchmark of all sci-fi films in my eyes.

Another Anime that has influenced me a lot is Naruto, a martial arts adventure show with about a bazillion episodes. The character development throughout the show is just fantastic, no matter how unhinged some of the content is in Naruto it just feels right. I think what I love most about is that you can have a 'cartoon' set in a mythical world but still deal with some pretty harrowing and adult themes, when done well some episodes are fantastic and are genuinely very emotional. A lot of themes explored in shows like Naruto have had an effect on the nature of my writing, I like stories about firendship, loyalty and self discovery, in some shape or forms these themes can be found in most things I write.

With my strong love for anime its no surprise that I'm also a really big fan of Studio Ghibli, the most recent film being From Up On Poppy Hill, it's easily one of the most beautiful films I've ever seen. I think these films far surpass anything Disney have ever made, even though I do have fond memories of Aladdin and The Lion King, the art style of Ghibli is breathtaking at times. As a filmmaker I'd love to create visuals that have such vibrancy and colour as the films from Ghibli. My college film, Dreamers Rest, was inspired heavily by Anime and the Ghibli films.

Moving forward, as my influences have started expanding in various different directions there are still a few shows that I can point out that have really changed me as a writer and filmmaker. The most recent and most influential of all is The Twilight Zone. On the surface The Twilight Zone is a fantastic and intelligent show but for me it's the writer, Rod Serling, who shines brightest. Not the most famous of writers and not the most successful, with regards to cinema writing that is, Planet Of The Apes being his most popular film he still however is my most favourite writer. I love the social commentary of his show, I love the use of his language; verbal and metaphorical. Most of the episodes of The Twilight Zone can change your perception of the world around you in less than 30 minutes. Even though it was written in the 50's the themes and stories are more relevant today than they ever were. He is a true inspiration to me.

Narrowing down and trying to work out my style as a film maker is hard, but through some of the influences above I do think I can piece together something that may vaguely explain what I'd like to create. Oddly, I don't actually believe there are many, if any films out there that really define who I am as a filmmaker, its exciting really to think that maybe one I can produce something highly original. Taking the artistic flourish of studio Ghibli and the likes of Shin Megami Tensei then turning it into cinema I think what we get, visualy, is something similar to what we see in films like Drive and Only God Forgives. Then also add the offbeat nature of anime and it's unusual characters and what we get is something that can be found in David Lynch's Twin Peaks and Mullholland Drive. Plenty of metaphor, commentary on the world around us and scathing attacks on areas of our society that needs reform, these story elements found in The Twilight Zone are what gets me exited as a writer. I think these are the components that have built me into the filmmaker I am today and will continue to mature and develop.

 

*Just as a footnote, to make things clear, I've tried to deliberately avoid using films in the list to highlight my influences, I think it was important to compile a list of other forms of media/entrainment to help explain my style as a filmmaker.