starting to plan next project
The following represents just over a week's worth of notes after completing the script for Drowners. Initially the idea was just to write another script, but it looks as though it can incorporate work in other media. That includes a nameless idea currently referred to the Frames project, and last years uncompleted Islands project (for which some works were completed, though largely unpublished)
You can trace through the following some transformations and evolution in my thinking. I've also started a project book, which will include this post and a range of other material. I'm aiming for this to be a long-term project, encouraged by the fact I managed to spend 8 months writing Drowners, and am currently leaving a few weeks before I start editing.
30 August 2016: the next one
No ideas for characters or situations just yet, but would like to get another script underway. I think it's important to have another piece on the go as I try to develop Drowners.
My thoughts so far are that I want a more downbeat and complex piece, something akin to various 70s and 80s films that inspire me. So along the lines of the Jane Arden and Laura Mulvey films I got earlier this year (Anti Clock and The Other Side of the Underneath (Arden), and Riddles of the Sphinx (Mulvey)). Other influences would be Sally Potter's The Gold Diggers; Derek Jarman's The Last of England, The Garden, The Angelic Conversation, and Blue; Penda's Fen; and doubtless a few others.
I'd like to expand on the rhythmic complexities of Drowners, and be a little more radical in the language and general approach. There's a strong feminist and LGBTQI influence on my thinking at this stage, though I recognise this may change.
Most of these influences have characters attacked by conventional society and breaking under the pressure, in some cases to be remade stronger. But since that's also part of what happens in Drowners I'd like a different end. A character either corrupted or damaged by their experience.
I had some sudden vague thoughts about standing stones and the landscapes I grew up in around Austwick. Though note, these are separate items; standing stones are not characteristic of the landscape I grew up in. Not sure where they would fit with any story. It may be necessary to start with basic images and ideas and do some free-ranging research around them, as I did with my initial visual pieces at the Mill.
Moods: foreboding, tired, resigned, rejecting the world, closeness to and celebration of nature's savagery, and emotional remoteness.
Weirdly also an influence from Doctor Who The Curse of Fenric - especially the priest's struggle with faith, the Doctor's coldness, the perpetuating of historic failures through generations and the conflict between role and identity. By this last I mean that sense of you that others have, which is a simplification and misrepresentation based on external characteristics - be they race, gender, age, job, politics etc. Also assumed familiarity through knowing someone a long time - or at least seeing and speaking to them relatively often.
And more influences in the form of King Lear (thematically), and The Tempest (which provides another Jarman link) though it ends more optimistically than I'm currently thinking of.
As part of my research, maybe take in a little of the geology around Austwick, and read more on Moughton Whetstone and Attamire Cave. The characteristics of the area are limestone, potholes, erratic boulders, limestone pavements, and caves. A landscape formed undersea and later by landslips and faultlines, and by glaciation.
Back to the Voices books, and the images and text in those that prompt relevant emotions.
Image of someone melting back into a huge limestone block. The channels cut by water mimicking their lines. Throws up associations of Michelangelo's unfinished Prisoners sculptures in particular as well as the [Isle of] Lewis Chessmen. And two further 70s tv programmes - The Stone Tapes, and one I can't remember the name of centred around a ring of standing stones - Children of the Stones.
Beginning of writing
[Standing on hillside near a cave.
N: Void. Insect. Stones drive you. Trickle.] - Probably rubbish, don't use.
Room. Dirty window. Cold sill. Stains boil and creep through. Paused and stripped. Rain.
Influences itemised for ease:
Anti Clock
The Other Side of the Underneath
Riddles of the Sphinx
The Gold Diggers
The Last of England (film)
The Garden
The Angelic Conversation
Blue
Penda's Fen
The Curse of Fenric
King Lear
The Tempest
Voices poetry books
Michelangelo's unfinished Prisoners sculptures
[Isle of] Lewis Chessmen
The Stone Tape
Children of the Stones.
Moughton Whetstone
Attamire Cave
Erratic boulders
Limestone pavements
Caves
Glaciation
Faultlines/landslips
1 September 2016: new script - stones and gloom, cracks and silence
If there’s a common thread in my thinking so far it seems to be characters who have removed themselves from everyday life and reject the world’s rules.
The exemplars in my mind at present would be Prosper (though consider also that Sycorax and Caliban are rejected without being offered the choice; and Ariel’s departure at the end), Dersu Uzala in the eponymous Kurosawa film, and both the pagans and the titular monk in Tarkovsky’s Andrei Rublev (the former as an oppressed group, the latter in an officially sanctioned form of retreat).
Sycorax is further complicated by her reported abuse of Caliban, her former colonisation of the island, her parallels with Medea, the possibility she represents Islamic colonialism of the period, and the fact that she is silenced by not appearing in the play.
All these characters reject or are rejected by society for different reasons. And each is complicated in different ways.
All these characters have their monstrous aspects - especially Prospero, Sycorax, Caliban and Medea. The dark, conventionally ‘inhuman’ side will be interesting to explore - and may have contemporary political relevance to extremist views and terrorism. Also links back to the revolutionary art that formed part of the inspiration for Drowners.
2 September 2016
More practically, an underlying underlying conception to build the script around. As with Drowners, isolated scenes, perhaps often silent or uneventful. Something drawing from Medea - especially Pasolini’s take on it. Fitting with my themes could also draw in influences from the story of the ‘I love you’ bridge in Sheffield. Elements also from Marianne Faithfull’s 80s albums. None of which is yet giving me a conception. Perhaps try writing a speech our scene to kick things off.
“What can you know of anything I should be frightened? Hurt? Nothing.
Act then”
Meh, not going anywhere much.
Pasolini’s Medea is the ancient world against the modern.
5 September 2016
Plane howls the distance turns the sky the resonating bowl. Cast in sand cast in shells of cars over fires lit with tyres and waste. Smoke speaks to cloud speaks to iridescent roadspill speaks to park railings ring struck by your passing coat.
Deny the time the lost the past and senseless. Deny the voice the harm and crime.
7 September 2016: some thoughts
Possible unrequited love crucial to story?
Strong images and mysterious incidents like those in some of my 100 word novels throughout.
Central character(s) we initially identify with who turn out to be monstrous people.
[Simple outlines of Medea and The Bacchae:
Medea: the title character marries Jason, they have several children. Jason is offered Glauce in marriage and takes her. Angry, Medea kills two of her children with Jason, and Glauce.
The Bacchae: Athens witnesses the growth of Bacchic worship. Pentheus attempts to stop this. Inspired by the god the Bacchae (including Pentheus’ mother Agauë tear him to pieces.]
Themes in the plays - city, civilisation and order v country, irrationality and passion; sympathy for oppressed groups; ancient v modern; the monstrous things done as a result of excesses of both reason and unreason; obsession; belief/values; also belonging and not belonging, age, injustice, intergenerational conflict/misunderstanding, all chime with The Tempest.
Don’t forget the exile/withdrawal of Dersu Uzala, Andrei Rublev and King Lear. And the elements, however background, of colonialism in all these texts.
Still no story as such though -
Wait - older woman living on her own, with eccentric habits, meets younger woman and they become friends. Younger woman opens up about her love for another woman. The older woman disapproves but offers some advice and talks about her past...
Another influence - Uncle David.
For end of story - perhaps older woman dies, the younger woman inherits the house and takes it on...
Further influence - Heloise and her 12th C feminism and opposition to marriage.
So, my next script - which will likely be a broader art project, and which I’m actually doing research for – appears to crash together various story elements from Shakespeare’s The Tempest and King Lear, Kurosawa’s Dersu Uzala, Tarkovsky’s Andrei Rublev, and Euripides’ Medea and The Bacchae. It also borrows from real-life events, in particular the Manson Family and the Jonestown Massacre. From my own work, the approach used in Drowners and the inexplicable incidents that my 100-word novels include are a big component of how I intend to structure and write the script.
It’s taken a week and around 1000 words of planning to get this far. There are details of the story, particularly the end, to sort out. I do have a set of themes which I currently think will be important to the piece, and which have driven my thinking and research thus far.
Initial inspirations:
Art:
Anti Clock
The Other Side of the Underneath
Riddles of the Sphinx
The Gold Diggers
The Last of England (film)
The Garden
The Angelic Conversation
Blue
The Curse of Fenric
King Lear
The Tempest
Voices poetry books
Michelangelo's unfinished Prisoners sculptures
[Isle of] Lewis Chessmen
The Stone Tape
Children of the Stones
Penda's Fen
Sheffield's 'I love you' bridge
Marianne Faithfull 80s albums
Geology/nature:
Moughton Whetstone
Attamire Cave
Erratic boulders
Limestone pavements
Caves
Glaciation
Faultlines/landslips
Current primary inspirations:
The Tempest
King Lear
Dersu Uzala
Andrei Rublev
Medea
The Bacchae
Uncle David
Heloise [Abelard & Heloise]
From my own work:
Style of Drowners
Images of the kind in 100-word novels
Islands project from last year - including finished material
Themes:
Characters who have removed themselves from everyday life and reject the world’s rules
Those exiled or isolated by others
Colonialism
The monstrous elements in ‘normal’ people
Contemporary political parallels
Next steps for script:
Draw up broad character profiles for the main players
Set down key scenes around images/events I want to hit
Sketch a chronology and think about whether/how this will impact the sequence of scenes
Identify any practical stuff I may need to research – though as with Drowners I’ll probably avoid details as not necessary.
Next steps elsewhere:
Think about how/whether the frames project fits into this
Imagery and sounds I can draw on
Identify artists/art/techniques to research
You can trace through the following some transformations and evolution in my thinking. I've also started a project book, which will include this post and a range of other material. I'm aiming for this to be a long-term project, encouraged by the fact I managed to spend 8 months writing Drowners, and am currently leaving a few weeks before I start editing.
30 August 2016: the next one
No ideas for characters or situations just yet, but would like to get another script underway. I think it's important to have another piece on the go as I try to develop Drowners.
My thoughts so far are that I want a more downbeat and complex piece, something akin to various 70s and 80s films that inspire me. So along the lines of the Jane Arden and Laura Mulvey films I got earlier this year (Anti Clock and The Other Side of the Underneath (Arden), and Riddles of the Sphinx (Mulvey)). Other influences would be Sally Potter's The Gold Diggers; Derek Jarman's The Last of England, The Garden, The Angelic Conversation, and Blue; Penda's Fen; and doubtless a few others.
I'd like to expand on the rhythmic complexities of Drowners, and be a little more radical in the language and general approach. There's a strong feminist and LGBTQI influence on my thinking at this stage, though I recognise this may change.
Most of these influences have characters attacked by conventional society and breaking under the pressure, in some cases to be remade stronger. But since that's also part of what happens in Drowners I'd like a different end. A character either corrupted or damaged by their experience.
I had some sudden vague thoughts about standing stones and the landscapes I grew up in around Austwick. Though note, these are separate items; standing stones are not characteristic of the landscape I grew up in. Not sure where they would fit with any story. It may be necessary to start with basic images and ideas and do some free-ranging research around them, as I did with my initial visual pieces at the Mill.
Moods: foreboding, tired, resigned, rejecting the world, closeness to and celebration of nature's savagery, and emotional remoteness.
Weirdly also an influence from Doctor Who The Curse of Fenric - especially the priest's struggle with faith, the Doctor's coldness, the perpetuating of historic failures through generations and the conflict between role and identity. By this last I mean that sense of you that others have, which is a simplification and misrepresentation based on external characteristics - be they race, gender, age, job, politics etc. Also assumed familiarity through knowing someone a long time - or at least seeing and speaking to them relatively often.
And more influences in the form of King Lear (thematically), and The Tempest (which provides another Jarman link) though it ends more optimistically than I'm currently thinking of.
As part of my research, maybe take in a little of the geology around Austwick, and read more on Moughton Whetstone and Attamire Cave. The characteristics of the area are limestone, potholes, erratic boulders, limestone pavements, and caves. A landscape formed undersea and later by landslips and faultlines, and by glaciation.
Back to the Voices books, and the images and text in those that prompt relevant emotions.
Image of someone melting back into a huge limestone block. The channels cut by water mimicking their lines. Throws up associations of Michelangelo's unfinished Prisoners sculptures in particular as well as the [Isle of] Lewis Chessmen. And two further 70s tv programmes - The Stone Tapes, and one I can't remember the name of centred around a ring of standing stones - Children of the Stones.
Beginning of writing
[Standing on hillside near a cave.
N: Void. Insect. Stones drive you. Trickle.] - Probably rubbish, don't use.
Room. Dirty window. Cold sill. Stains boil and creep through. Paused and stripped. Rain.
Influences itemised for ease:
Anti Clock
The Other Side of the Underneath
Riddles of the Sphinx
The Gold Diggers
The Last of England (film)
The Garden
The Angelic Conversation
Blue
Penda's Fen
The Curse of Fenric
King Lear
The Tempest
Voices poetry books
Michelangelo's unfinished Prisoners sculptures
[Isle of] Lewis Chessmen
The Stone Tape
Children of the Stones.
Moughton Whetstone
Attamire Cave
Erratic boulders
Limestone pavements
Caves
Glaciation
Faultlines/landslips
1 September 2016: new script - stones and gloom, cracks and silence
If there’s a common thread in my thinking so far it seems to be characters who have removed themselves from everyday life and reject the world’s rules.
The exemplars in my mind at present would be Prosper (though consider also that Sycorax and Caliban are rejected without being offered the choice; and Ariel’s departure at the end), Dersu Uzala in the eponymous Kurosawa film, and both the pagans and the titular monk in Tarkovsky’s Andrei Rublev (the former as an oppressed group, the latter in an officially sanctioned form of retreat).
Sycorax is further complicated by her reported abuse of Caliban, her former colonisation of the island, her parallels with Medea, the possibility she represents Islamic colonialism of the period, and the fact that she is silenced by not appearing in the play.
All these characters reject or are rejected by society for different reasons. And each is complicated in different ways.
All these characters have their monstrous aspects - especially Prospero, Sycorax, Caliban and Medea. The dark, conventionally ‘inhuman’ side will be interesting to explore - and may have contemporary political relevance to extremist views and terrorism. Also links back to the revolutionary art that formed part of the inspiration for Drowners.
2 September 2016
More practically, an underlying underlying conception to build the script around. As with Drowners, isolated scenes, perhaps often silent or uneventful. Something drawing from Medea - especially Pasolini’s take on it. Fitting with my themes could also draw in influences from the story of the ‘I love you’ bridge in Sheffield. Elements also from Marianne Faithfull’s 80s albums. None of which is yet giving me a conception. Perhaps try writing a speech our scene to kick things off.
“What can you know of anything I should be frightened? Hurt? Nothing.
Act then”
Meh, not going anywhere much.
Pasolini’s Medea is the ancient world against the modern.
5 September 2016
Plane howls the distance turns the sky the resonating bowl. Cast in sand cast in shells of cars over fires lit with tyres and waste. Smoke speaks to cloud speaks to iridescent roadspill speaks to park railings ring struck by your passing coat.
Deny the time the lost the past and senseless. Deny the voice the harm and crime.
7 September 2016: some thoughts
Possible unrequited love crucial to story?
Strong images and mysterious incidents like those in some of my 100 word novels throughout.
Central character(s) we initially identify with who turn out to be monstrous people.
[Simple outlines of Medea and The Bacchae:
Medea: the title character marries Jason, they have several children. Jason is offered Glauce in marriage and takes her. Angry, Medea kills two of her children with Jason, and Glauce.
The Bacchae: Athens witnesses the growth of Bacchic worship. Pentheus attempts to stop this. Inspired by the god the Bacchae (including Pentheus’ mother Agauë tear him to pieces.]
Themes in the plays - city, civilisation and order v country, irrationality and passion; sympathy for oppressed groups; ancient v modern; the monstrous things done as a result of excesses of both reason and unreason; obsession; belief/values; also belonging and not belonging, age, injustice, intergenerational conflict/misunderstanding, all chime with The Tempest.
Don’t forget the exile/withdrawal of Dersu Uzala, Andrei Rublev and King Lear. And the elements, however background, of colonialism in all these texts.
Still no story as such though -
Wait - older woman living on her own, with eccentric habits, meets younger woman and they become friends. Younger woman opens up about her love for another woman. The older woman disapproves but offers some advice and talks about her past...
Another influence - Uncle David.
For end of story - perhaps older woman dies, the younger woman inherits the house and takes it on...
Further influence - Heloise and her 12th C feminism and opposition to marriage.
So, my next script - which will likely be a broader art project, and which I’m actually doing research for – appears to crash together various story elements from Shakespeare’s The Tempest and King Lear, Kurosawa’s Dersu Uzala, Tarkovsky’s Andrei Rublev, and Euripides’ Medea and The Bacchae. It also borrows from real-life events, in particular the Manson Family and the Jonestown Massacre. From my own work, the approach used in Drowners and the inexplicable incidents that my 100-word novels include are a big component of how I intend to structure and write the script.
It’s taken a week and around 1000 words of planning to get this far. There are details of the story, particularly the end, to sort out. I do have a set of themes which I currently think will be important to the piece, and which have driven my thinking and research thus far.
Initial inspirations:
Art:
Anti Clock
The Other Side of the Underneath
Riddles of the Sphinx
The Gold Diggers
The Last of England (film)
The Garden
The Angelic Conversation
Blue
The Curse of Fenric
King Lear
The Tempest
Voices poetry books
Michelangelo's unfinished Prisoners sculptures
[Isle of] Lewis Chessmen
The Stone Tape
Children of the Stones
Penda's Fen
Sheffield's 'I love you' bridge
Marianne Faithfull 80s albums
Geology/nature:
Moughton Whetstone
Attamire Cave
Erratic boulders
Limestone pavements
Caves
Glaciation
Faultlines/landslips
Current primary inspirations:
The Tempest
King Lear
Dersu Uzala
Andrei Rublev
Medea
The Bacchae
Uncle David
Heloise [Abelard & Heloise]
From my own work:
Style of Drowners
Images of the kind in 100-word novels
Islands project from last year - including finished material
Themes:
Characters who have removed themselves from everyday life and reject the world’s rules
Those exiled or isolated by others
Colonialism
The monstrous elements in ‘normal’ people
Contemporary political parallels
Next steps for script:
Draw up broad character profiles for the main players
Set down key scenes around images/events I want to hit
Sketch a chronology and think about whether/how this will impact the sequence of scenes
Identify any practical stuff I may need to research – though as with Drowners I’ll probably avoid details as not necessary.
Next steps elsewhere:
Think about how/whether the frames project fits into this
Imagery and sounds I can draw on
Identify artists/art/techniques to research
Comments