XaviFilms is Moving Home

No doubt I've named this post incredibly dramatic, considering this blog is really only a beginners, not hugely read site, but nevertheless I'd like to inform the readers that do come to this blog of it's future. As I'm slowly (rapidly) turning into an adult (primary by age, hopefully not too much mentally) and it's going to be time to start thinking towards the future etc I thought it only correct to reconsider this blog. Now, I have no striking problems with blogger as a site, it's been pretty easy to write and publish these posts; albeit with a few confusions as to the reader statistics. But I will be concentrating on blogging on Wordpress instead, Wordpress has a widely recognised reputation for being more customisable (something I personally really enjoy having control of, and have struggled with slightly on here) and, in general, is recognized better professionally speaking. As snobby as that sounds, it is not meant to. I just think that as many writers and professionals established in the industry I want to go into, have often had blogs and for the fact I do enjoy having a blog it was time to take it seriously and expand.... Okay, so the whole trying-not-to-be-dramatic thing isn't working out great, but hey ho!

I do want my new blog to look nice and snazzy, as well as being professional, and with a good enough quality that I would be proud to not only publish these casual blogs, but to showcase my personal portfolio for work. So, it's unsurprising that it won't be up straight away, so if it takes too long I'll still post to here and (hopefully, maybe) will transfer some, if not all, of the previous posts to the new one.

Here's to the new blog (y)

Growing Up.

Maturity and the general evolution of people from child to adult is both difficult and fascinating. At 20 I'm at that age where things seem to be getting a little more continuous and stable, and at the same time more hectic and unpredictable. That contradiction when written down doesn't really make much sense but think about it, the frustration and confusion of adolescence begins to calm down, while the excitement and relative freedom of what the future holds begins to take place. It's time to look at the unknown with a greater perspective.

As children, we're innocent, crazy, energetic and naive and although the truth is otherwise, that childishness nature seems to go by so quickly. In its place is a strange, identity defining era of a persons life that is full of everything the world has to offer. As a kid that didn't exactly grow up with the easiest of circumstances that period of adolescence was particularly memorable for me; both positively and negatively, but I think whoever you are the same things apply. Whatever happens and wherever you live,that transition shouldn't be looked on with too much regret, or too easily forgotten, because it's not all bad, a lot of it is incredible. You're meeting some of your greatest and closest friends, you're discovering things you never knew existed, you're finding out who you are, and what you like, what you want to be. Contrary to popular belief as well, it's in my opinion that this period of your life is where you have the time to make mistakes and the time to be hurt, and pick yourself up from it. Friends come and go, but it's not the end of the world because you've still got the rest of your life to either find better friends, or rekindle that friendship at a later time.

Everything seems so incredibly condensed looking back on the past 10 years of my life, and it truly is absolutely bemusing to understand how much happens in what feels like such a short time. It was a very difficult time of my life yet similarly it was a time of intense hilarity and inspiration. That's the main thing I guess I'm trying to get to in this post. Growing up is difficult, and losing people is tricky, but in the end no matter what you do it's inspirational and influential in later life. So, if you're reading this and you're going through that transition still, let it happen, don't try to stop it and realise that every fall down is really a benefit in the long run. Likewise, if you're my age or older for that matter, even if it doesn't feel like it, there is something, anything about yourself that is amazing. That thing, no doubt, will have come from a long time of changing, discovering, hurting and healing.

So don't be sad it happened; celebrate how it shaped you.

"So what do you actually want to do?"

"So what do you actually want to do?" - The question a majority of students dread with an unbreakable strength and struggle to answer without listing more than one job at a time. I don't know much about the rules behind careers in too many fields, but when it comes to the Creative Industries the general feeling is that to begin with you have to specify one role. Now, don't get me wrong there are lots of people, some that I know that can give you a definitive specific answer to that question and sometimes I wish I could do that! But with creativity often comes indecisiveness, so a lot of people, myself including find that they are passionate about more than one area and role, so what then?

I guess to an extent that's what University is for; it broadens your mind but also gives you a better understanding of what it is you're best at doing. As it's coming to the end of my second year, it's hard not to get sentimental about ... well ... everything, really and on top of that is a natural, overbearing sense of trepidation. But why? You may ask, well although it is true that once established in the industry you can afford to add other credits to your name and be more than just that one role; at the start it seems best to specify as much as possible. Get to the point, you may then scream, well the point is; how much of my career will be affected by the specific role I will eventually chose?
Rhetorical though this question may be (After all you cant exactly see what I'm writing til its published) it is one that undoubtedly many will have thought about.

I'm going to attempt to answer my own question - 'attempt' being the important word - so where do I start? Well ultimately what I'd like to become is a Screenwriter, Director, Actor and Author (see what I mean?) Sure I've not exactly made it easy for myself, but I figure if you're about to try and enter a difficult industry you may as well go for everything! And there are hundreds of people who are multifaceted in the industry; Rashida Jones, James Corden, Will Smith, Steven Chbosky, Ben Affleck, to name a few!

It's finding that small thing that makes one role that tiniest bit more attractive to you! So you can say from the beginning "What am I? I'm an aspiring Director" or "What am I? I'm an aspiring Actor" etc etc at 20; still a student I obviously can't be certain but I reckon that comes from as much experience as possible. I've helped out on the smallest of roles on 3 dissertation films in the past month and a bit, and thats gradually helped to shape my thought process more. Who said University was worthless? Technically though, this does not answer my question! But it leads into it; from what I've seen, what I've heard and in general what I believe it won't affect it all that much. If you start a career being one thing, but want to be another, fine, just work for it. I figure if I can manage to get in the industry and be successful in one role, then screw it I can do the rest! I'd say if it's gonna affect the career it'll make it better when approached with the right viewpoint!.

Liam.

Shorts to Novels; Passion and Drive in the Form of Art

During this 'Journey' of writing my first Novel, as is normal with anything and anyone I've found moments where my enthusiasm has somewhat lacked. Whether the reason is to do with fatigue, stress, or just pure darn laziness it's just something that happens and it's annoying. Very annoying. Because you're sat at your desk, looking at what you've written so far, one half of your brain sadistically whispering "look you've done well, just put it aside and write a different one for now... an easier one" and the other half failing to encourage "go on, look you've got half of the book left.... thats good, you know it is.... it might feel like a lot... but it's not... go on" it tries. For the first half hour I find myself battling between these two conflicts in these moods, someday's I'll give the latter half some sympathy and randomly find wonderful productivity and other days I'll get furiously competitive on a shameful procrastination game of Mario Kart. So what's the cure? For the anti-productivity bug? Well for me, and again this kind of thing varies with different people, but a lot of my enthusiasm comes from Art - and I use Art in an extremely broad sense. Anything that constitutes as a beautiful creation; from Music, Films, Books and literal pieces of Art really lift the spirit sometimes; if I run into a piece of Art that's truly fantastic it instantly makes a difference.

For example during one of my bad sessions of procrastination fueled by endless episodes of the fantastic Fresh Meat I found myself inspired multiple times. Fresh Meat, along with including Kimberly Nixon; an undeniable celebrity crush if ever there was one, is a great programme and has these incredible moments of poetic excellence, in its writing, it's choice of shots, it's use of music and its absolutely electric connections with the actors. But during one scene in the library where Oregon/Melissa (Charlotte Richie) falls in love with a student and librarian Dylan (Ronan Raftery) they recite a section from Anne Sexton's poem 'Admonitions to a Special Person' which I had never read before. It went "to love another is something like prayer and can't be planned, you just fall into its arms because your belief undoes disbelief" and that was enough to start me off again.... after finishing the episode (obviously). It made me want to write, to create something as equally beautiful as that, it reminded me why I want to be a writer, I want to be the person that creates something that really leaves a lasting impression on someone like Admonitions to a Special Person and Fresh Meat has to me. 

Cure for anti-productivity? Passion and drive in the form of art/what you love.

The Missing; Drama at its best

"Home is not just just a place, Tony. It's whatever there is in your life that stops you feeling alone."

These are the words spoken by Julien Baptiste half way through the series finalé of what could possibly be one of the greatest dramas to have graced our TV screens for a long time. I tend to stray away from watching TV as it seems to periodically get slightly worse, but programmes like Broadchurch, Last Tango in Halifax and The Missing keep the faith growing. Some may say that The Missing 'drags out a bit' but the length of time it takes to get to some form of solution simply reinforces the idea of reality... cases like those do not resolve themselves simply and quickly, so it would be wrong for The Missing to have finished after the first 2 episodes, for example. It was richly layered with multiple narratives, and sub-plots, all created with a sort of enforcement on dramatic equality; so that we not only focus all our attention on Tony and his struggles and the 'abduction' of his son but so we connect with the lives going on around it just as much. James Nesbitt has always been a favourite of mine when it comes to actors so I always knew he would be fantastic, but his acting surpassed even my original expectations, he was perfect for the role and exuded such a beautiful sense of a debilitated, and horrifically angry childless father. Just as much as Frances O' Connor who played Emily, whose character was actually quite refreshingly different to Nesbitts' in the way that she was quite a bit stronger, so it was only right to give her character the final resonating speech that tied all the narratives together. Of course, with dramas like this every single character lends itself to its success and truly every single character was enthralling, and perfectly performed. Sometimes too many characters with too many stories can become confusing but Harry and Jack Williams managed to develop everything and everyone in a way that along with the complimenting acting kept it entertaining. Praise must also be sung to the Williams' for the whole story and their ending. It's only natural with these sort of programmes that people watching will attempt to solve the case themselves, as they should, why not, right? So to bring the audience back down to earth, and keep them focused on the story and the reality of these cases, to have an ending that almost no-one could have predicted was absolutely genius. Yet the ending also left a little doubt in our minds, a little doubt as to the truth of the case, that, as is only right wont ever be fully found out. It's by no surprise that it's already been given a second series to focus on a different case.

If you watch anything; watch The Missing. Oh and Broadchurch when it comes back because that was incredible; 5th January y'all.

The Power of Observational Thought

So I've said multiple times that this blog is to do with the Arts (theatre, writing, film, music) aswell as a bit of sentiment (seemingly a lot) so it's no surprise that this specific post is going to meld the two into a hopefully understandable mixture. The other day at University in my creative writing class we had been told to create a PowerPoint Presentation that showed our influences, to explore the power of influence and to see just how creatively effected we are by the mentioned people or things. I mentioned briefly Charles Dickens, specifically 'Hard Times', Patrick Suskind and his book 'Perfume' Jane Austen and 'Emma' and Emily Bronte 'Wuthering Heights. Those were the books that have quite a profound effect on me, in the classic sense, but with a more contemporary feeling and for me on the most personal level I spoke about John Green (The Fault In Our Stars, Looking for Alaska, Paper Towns etc) Nicholas Sparks (Dear John, The Notebook, The Guardian, Message in a Bottle, Safe Haven etc) and on a more cinematic level Frank Capra and my favourite film of all time; It's A Wonderful Life. Those are truly my greatest influences but I felt that I needed to add in an admittedly cheesy aspect, but one that truly is my all time most important influence; and that's life, and observations. Before I got really into wanting writing and film as a career rather than a hobby I really enjoyed photography, and I used to take pictures of the world around me, and when you do that you realise things that you don't notice the first time. When you're sad or low, you tend to notice these things aswell, because you're looking for something to let you escape and make you happy, and find these small wonderful elements of life that normally would be overlooked, and they are fantastic influences. Small little things in this life that could quite easily be a catalyst for a piece of prose or poetry; the closing of an eye in sleep, the one bright leaf laying amongst hundreds of discoloured autumnal leaves. And its powerful, its an incredible sentimental and emotional thing, there's a connection you can feel to small objects within a larger universe, because essentially that's what us as humans are, and if one day a human can notice a leaf; something they are surrounded by and find beauty in it, then that leaves hope. If we can find beauty in something we see everywhere everyday, then surely we can find beauty in ourselves and our friends, and our lives, and our family. Yet it's a thing that not that many people seem to do; to just notice life. But it's one of those things that more people really should do, Observational Thought is a power to be reckoned with.

Shorts to Novels; Belief in the Creative Flow

As I approach the halfway mark in my Novel I've started to become a little more relaxed and positive about trusting the 'Creative Flow'. This Novel has been in development from the very first conceptual process to actually putting every bit of planning into writing it for at least 14 months. During those 14 months character profiles, brief timelines, back-stories have been changed quite dramatically, and as I've been writing it I've found myself concentrating TOO hard in order to make sure all the planning is executed correctly. Yes, there is such a thing as concentrating TOO hard, of course there is. With my writing I've been guilty of doing it before, but sometimes you have the idea and you plan it then when it comes to writing you get sucked into this worry that it wont be good enough, or that the genre wont be right, or that this wont go right so you try to mould it as much as possible. That cut's out the belief in 'creative flow'. When I say Creative Flow what I mean is the self-belief that you've thought of a good story and will thus write a good story. You have to give yourself the freedom to then go ahead and write it, write it being aware of what you're writing... but to an extent. There's no way that any writer will allow himself to write a poem/short story/epic/saga/novel without reading through it and editing about a million times. So the way I look at it is that you should write it, change things if you feel they desperately need it or they don't work with other bits, but ultimately trust yourself to finish it first, and then go back read it and edit it with a fine tooth comb. Writing is a fun thing to do, if you go through the whole process worrying and be over-critical before you've finished then you're completely changing the happiness and wonder of the process.