Two guiding stars...

The film I've been working on with Tobias for over a year now has been rather hard work. Most of that work has been mental, a processing of ideas and various attempts at gathering them into a coherent whole. I suppose that is the work of all writers. This has been more difficult though.

The reason it's been so difficult is not really to do with the story. It is about style, and as such should perhaps not be given the notoriety I am giving it here, but nonetheless it has been my biggest - and most consistent - problem. It is this: my attempt to reconcile my admiration for two (apparently) mutually exclusive styles. A documentary-like realism and naturalism and a visually-arresting magical "other"-world. I like each as much as the other, and find it difficult to focus on just one when writing. The result is writing a scene in whichever style I feel I'm "in" that particular day, then doing away with it the next.

However, I think I've managed to achieve some form of synthesis, thanks to two guiding stars, who both, in their entirely separate ways, manage to reconcile these elements: Krzysztof Kieslowski and Michel Gondry. Both manage to ground their stories in a believable, emotionally honest reality whilst acknowledging the magic of everyday life, Kieslowski in his almost spiritual mise-en-scene and pacing, Gondry in his rabid visual imagination.

Of course this voyage of discovery wouldn't be complete without a new problem at the end of it: how not to write a Gondlowski-Kiesry rip-off!