I actually found your OGR to be a frustrating experience: if I were to summarise it's creative message it would be thus: "I'm doing the spider city because I like creepy stuff. I've always liked creepy stuff so I'm doing the spider city. Spiders are creepy, therefore Octavia is a gothic castle and everything is creepy..."
Hmmm.
Now I've read the Octavia passage a few times and I can find no rationale at all for 'Octavia is creepy' - except for the fact that it hangs in the middle of a ravine 'like' a spider-web. Indeed, in your thumbnails or mission statement, I can find no evidence of all the other things described in the extract - the architecture that hangs below the city.
My concern is simply this; that your thumbnails represent an existing preoccupation with gothic imagery and not a thorough or particularly thoughtful exploration of Calvino's metropolis. Now, the idea of looking at spider anatomy/web structures as an influence for deriving ideas about architectural structures is fine and sensible, but the whole gothic thing isn't coming from Calvino's text, it's coming from your comfort zone. All I'm suggesting is you take a moment to reflect on the actual content of the extract, as opposed to using it to transmit your existing interests - remember what I said about 'style creep?' - well, this is an example of that...
Other considerations; the big challenge of the exterior establishing shot is to convey scale; this is an entire city suspended between two mountains, so you'll need to think about what makes a city - the variety of buildings, the variety of functionalities (energy/water supplies/transportation).
Your OGR is very enthusiastic about Octavia - and I don't want to take any of the wind from your sails - but I'm not convinced that you're actually using all of your imagination yet; you're using the bit you already know how to use and I can't help observing it might be a wasted opportunity. This is Calvino's city as much as it is yours - and you've been commissioned to adapt his work for screen - not take one small element and from it create an entirely personal narrative about your favourite things...
I understand completely Phil. Too be honest I've always had a tough time getting out of my comfort zone when it comes to my ideas and the mission statement wasn't something i was massively proud of. Ill start looking at newer ideas and limiting my gothic influences from now on. I appreciate the feedback though.
Hey Lewis - I love horror movies - they are my anorak subject, but not everything I do or say is about horror movies (even if I'd like it to be!). The advice here is simple: let the brief change you; don't change the brief; your love of the gothic won't disappear because you don't get to 'bank' it this time around, I promise :)
OGR 09/10/2014
ReplyDeleteHey Lewis,
I actually found your OGR to be a frustrating experience: if I were to summarise it's creative message it would be thus: "I'm doing the spider city because I like creepy stuff. I've always liked creepy stuff so I'm doing the spider city. Spiders are creepy, therefore Octavia is a gothic castle and everything is creepy..."
Hmmm.
Now I've read the Octavia passage a few times and I can find no rationale at all for 'Octavia is creepy' - except for the fact that it hangs in the middle of a ravine 'like' a spider-web. Indeed, in your thumbnails or mission statement, I can find no evidence of all the other things described in the extract - the architecture that hangs below the city.
My concern is simply this; that your thumbnails represent an existing preoccupation with gothic imagery and not a thorough or particularly thoughtful exploration of Calvino's metropolis. Now, the idea of looking at spider anatomy/web structures as an influence for deriving ideas about architectural structures is fine and sensible, but the whole gothic thing isn't coming from Calvino's text, it's coming from your comfort zone. All I'm suggesting is you take a moment to reflect on the actual content of the extract, as opposed to using it to transmit your existing interests - remember what I said about 'style creep?' - well, this is an example of that...
Other considerations; the big challenge of the exterior establishing shot is to convey scale; this is an entire city suspended between two mountains, so you'll need to think about what makes a city - the variety of buildings, the variety of functionalities (energy/water supplies/transportation).
Your OGR is very enthusiastic about Octavia - and I don't want to take any of the wind from your sails - but I'm not convinced that you're actually using all of your imagination yet; you're using the bit you already know how to use and I can't help observing it might be a wasted opportunity. This is Calvino's city as much as it is yours - and you've been commissioned to adapt his work for screen - not take one small element and from it create an entirely personal narrative about your favourite things...
I understand completely Phil. Too be honest I've always had a tough time getting out of my comfort zone when it comes to my ideas and the mission statement wasn't something i was massively proud of. Ill start looking at newer ideas and limiting my gothic influences from now on. I appreciate the feedback though.
ReplyDeleteHey Lewis - I love horror movies - they are my anorak subject, but not everything I do or say is about horror movies (even if I'd like it to be!). The advice here is simple: let the brief change you; don't change the brief; your love of the gothic won't disappear because you don't get to 'bank' it this time around, I promise :)
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