Finding the Personal Voice in Filmmaking

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-vii

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Erik Knudsen

   Pages 1-16

3. Why Create?

   • Erik Knudsen

   Pages 17-39

4. What Is Creativity?

   • Erik Knudsen

   Pages 41-81

5. Why Story?

   • Erik Knudsen

   Pages 83-104

6. Transformations

   • Erik Knudsen

   Pages 105-114

7. Back Matter

   Pages 115-130

   PDF

This book philosophically and creatively examines ways in which independent filmmakers may explore, through practice, the discovery and development of a personal voice in the making of their films. Filmmaker and academic, Professor Erik Knudsen, uses a combination of autoethnographic experience derived from his own filmmaking practice and new insights gained from a series of ethnomediaological StoryLab workshops with independent filmmakers in Malaysia, Ghana and Colombia to drive this innovative examination. The book contextualises this practice exploration within an eclectic psychological and philosophical framework that ranges from Jungian psychological theories of the collective unconscious to Sheldrakian scientific theories of morphic resonance, from Christian mystical ideas about creative motivation to structuralist theories that underpin our linguistic understanding of story and narrative. Why should we create? What is a creative act? This in-depth study tackles these questions by examining the early ideation stages of cinematic expression and ultimately seeks to understand the practical ways in which ideas are shaped into stories and narratives. 

• film industry
• creativity
• emotions
• ideas
• StoryLab
• play
• narrative
• transcendental realism
• Jung

“Knudsen takes us deep into his own (very personal and successful) creative practice as a filmmaker and collaborator in the pursuit of developing cinematic stories. Out of his autoethnographic exploration, he has developed a rich and powerful methodology: ethnomediaology. This book allows us to reap the benefits of the hugely significant and seminal work of the AHRC StoryLab Film Development Research Network workshops. Of particular value are the series of exercises and questions which the reader can use to problem solve through processes that break down patterns of thinking and develop ideas using the notion of story and narrative resonance.” (Graham Roberts, Leeds Trinity University, UK)

 

• University of Central Lancashire, Preston, UK

  Erik Knudsen

Erik Knudsen is a filmmaker and Professor of Media Practice at the University of Central Lancashire, UK. Recent prize winning films include Cleft Lip (2018) and The Raven On The Jetty (2015) and he is co-author of Creative Documentary: Theory and Practice (2011).

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