Month: February 2011

Leave a comment Posted on films, writing

Darren Aronofsky’s Rules for Writing

Writers’ Block just screened Pi at the ARC in Stockton, for the first of our monthly cinema nights there. I did a bit of research (ie tried to get Wikipedia to do my job for me) for my expert introduction to the film and I stumbled across the rules that Aronofsky followed during the writing of Pi’s first draft. They’re good rules!

1. Always move forward. If you have a problem type through it.
2. Only take a break after something good happens on the page or you accomplish a goal. No breaks for confusion (type through it).
3. Ten pages a day minimum.
4. Only go back to add something. Do not remove contradictions, just make a note.
5. Do it. Suffer, live, cry, struggle for one week. You’ll feel like a million bucks by the fifteenth.
6. Have fun.

Taken from Darren Aronofsky’s diary of the making of Pi.

The screening went well. Only ten punters, but from tiny acorns all big elephants do grow, so hopefully there’ll be a few more in for next month’s screening of The Big Lebowski, which, let’s face it, is a bit more of a crowd pleaser what with it being more about quirky characters being funny and less heavy on the maths, insects, headaches, drills and whatnot. The maths, insects, headaches and drills demographic is dwindling, man.

Leave a comment Posted on music

Concrete Schoolyard

Well this takes me back to my time in the L.A. hip hop underground. Ah, those were the days. MCing like a river rocking lyrical flow and experimenting with harmonic convergence, dynamic vocal inflections, and fly b-boy bravado. Basically kicking it old-school with that classic rap shit. And in many ways Jurassic 5 did the same.

Leave a comment Posted on short film

Save It

I wrote and co-directed a film this weekend for the Go Green 48 hour film challenge. Our theme was “Save The Planet”. Inspiring!

You can see our entry here, and maybe rate it five stars so that I can go to Las Vegas, thus giving the film a massive carbon footprint. I think that would be good.

Of course, to view it you have to sign up to the 48 Go Green website, so I’d understand if you couldn’t be bothered. It’s only about saving the planet after all. Why not kill a polar bear while you’re not rating my film five stars? You might as well. God.

Leave a comment Posted on animation, short film

The External World

Wrongness on a scale usually used to measure earthquakes. Not work safe. Or home safe. Just generally unsafe. If you have 20 spare minutes I can recommend watching this for 17 of them and spending the other three giving your brain a shower.

It’s the new film by David O’Reilly, the Irish artist and animator, co-written by Vernon Chatman of Wonder Showzen glory, and featuring cameos by Adam Buxton and Julian Barrett. It’s a nightmarish thing, occasionally dipping into darkness-by-numbers, but mostly funny and unsettling in equal measure. And it’s visually stunning; all Atari-hued and glitchy, with an attention to detail that rewards repeat viewings – “Scalpel shop – free puppy with every purchase”. What?

It’s also, as I mentioned, ever so wrong.

Look at his website. David O’Reilly is 25. I hate him.

“Hhh. Typical”.

Leave a comment Posted on blather, comedy

Jesting About

Hoorah! I got selected to develop some ideas for online comedy with the BBC. I could play it cool, like, “sure, that’s nice” but I have to say I am beyond chuffed about this.

There’s a press release on the BBC website*.

The basic gist is: the BBC hands over some money and I work up the three pitches I submitted (one live action dingus – Doorsteppers – and two animated thingummies – The Answer Yam and The World of the World with Ben Klimmek) and hopefully come up with a few more. From what I can gather, I have to produce three minutes of something by the end of April. Wonder what it’ll be? Can’t wait to find out. Hope it’s good…

It was interesting when I got the call to say I’d been accepted ‘cos I couldn’t exactly remember what I’d pitched. I’d got the deadline so totally wrong that all three pitch documents had to be written and submitted in around three hours. Which meant Ben had to generate the art super-quick. Bet he was pleased. He looked pleased. Welcome to the world of working with Harris, Klimmek. It’s all part of my charm. Unreliability is charming, right?

Here’s a Klimmek pic from The Answer Yam pitch. Grand!

*this got me a mention on Chortle – which I didn’t realise was a bit of a dream come true until it happened.

Leave a comment Posted on music

Heaven Can Wait

There’s certainly a lot to look at in this video, isn’t there? Although maybe the most disconcerting part is realising that Beck’s head is starting to resemble a gingery lightbulb. It’s directed by Keith Schofield, and you can see more of his work on his website here: http://keithschofield.com/. I’d say his stuff has a glossy oddness to it. It’s healthy, clean-cut and safe California-style surrealism, but very pretty for all that.

His site also contains treatments for the videos, which are fascinating. For this one, he says:

Each scene will have a clear purpose. It’s just that no scene will connect to any other one. They won’t connect to anything. And I want nearly every shot to be a “WOW!” moment – a big set piece that any other video would spend 3 minutes on.

Which I’d say is pretty much what he delivers.