2. Ian Fleming
Ian Lancaster Fleming, born in 1908 to Valentine and Evelyn St. Croix Fleming, was a critically
acclaimed English author. Most famous for his James Bond series of books, Fleming has written over
14 books with the same character on different thrilling adventures of espionage and subterfuge. He
also wrote Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, a children’s book about an inventor who made a flying car, but is
ultimately looking for a mother for his children. Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang was written for Fleming’s
own son, Caspar.
During his lifetime he was the head naval intelligence officer at Room 39 in the Admiralty, a job that
clearly influenced the development of his most famous character James Bond. Bond is an agent of
the British Secretive Intelligence Service, more commonly known as MI6. In real life, the Admiralty
House where Fleming worked during the Second World War is located in Westminster, close to the
Houses of Parliament. 54 Broadway, the SIS headquarters until 1964, was located just a short walk
down the road from the building so it’s likely that the two intelligence services communicated
frequently. With Fleming being the head of the Naval Intelligence Department, it’s likely that he
communicated with SIS agents, so that could have had a heavy influence on the character of James
Bond.
Fleming seemed to have a flair for description. Whether that be describing “a china eggshell,
enclosed in gold filigree” or ”deep blue-violet eyes that were no longer hard…”, Fleming’s words
always had a way to convince the reader to turn the page at the end of a chapter. Raymond Benson
called this the “Fleming Sweep”. To do this technique, you must end a chapter with either some
form of sexual tease or a cliff hanger like a bullet hitting your character. “The bullet, homing on
Bond’s heart, flashed over its two quiet yards. Bond pitched forward to the floor and lay sprawled
under the funereal violet light.” is an example of this technique in use at the end of chapter 26 of
From Russia, With Love.
Outside of Bond and the conventions Fleming brought to the thriller genre in literature, there isn’t
much influence on me or my work. Ian Fleming’s lifestyle could be considered deplorable by today’s
standards, living a rich and misogynistic life before his death in 1964. However, his legacy is vibrant
and full of legendary exploits of his hero whom he loathed. Fleming brought much to the spy genre
and all of this has heavily influenced how I will write my own work.
htt
ps:
//
htt
ps:
//
htt
ps:
//
3. Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg, born in 1946 to Arnold Spielberg and Lea Adler, is a world famous American
director. Most famous for directing films such as Jaws, Jurassic Park and Indiana Jones, Spielberg
has directed over 33 movies with adventure, betrayal, romance and action over 46 years. Jaws,
Spielberg’s most successful movie, had a budget of roughly $42,000,000 (Adjusted for inflation) and
received a global gross of $2,240,000,000.
At the age of 11, Steven Spielberg took his father’s 8mm camera and made a film called “The Last
Gunfight” for his boy scout troop. When he was 15, he made a film called ”Escape to Nowhere”. In
the film, he used a lot of equipment from the second world war, that his father and neighbours will
have collected during their time fighting in the war. Growing up around so many veterans of the
second world war clearly impacted Spielberg’s work, as some of his most popular work is based on
that topic. Schindler’s List and Saving Private Ryan, for example.
It wouldn’t be a Spielberg film without a sweeping orchestral score by John Williams. Well, it would
if it were The Colour Purple, Bridge of Spies or Ready Player One. But John Williams has made the
scores for his most iconic films. Indiana Jones, Jaws and Jurassic Park just to name a few. He’s also
known for the ”Spielberg Face” shot, where the character on screen is looking shocked and the
camera is staying on them. One other is that a lot of his movies have stories about trauma and family
issues.
Steven Spielberg is one of the biggest influences on my creative work. When I was around the age of
7, I watched Jurassic Park for the first time. That stuck with my and it’s now one of my favourite
films. Some of my hobbies are military based, that’s because of my dad. My relationship with my
dad is much closer now because of Spielberg products. I watched Band of Brothers and Saving
Private Ryan for the first time with my dad and it’s nice that we have a common ground. Because
he’s away quite a bit, watching these Spielberg war films are precious little moments that I’ll
cherish. There is no direct influence on my work, but the films he’s directed have got me interested
in media as a whole. I probably wouldn’t be here today if I hadn’t watched Jurassic Park all of those
years ago.
htt
ps:
//t
htt
ps:
//
ht
tp
s:
4. Nolan North
Nolan Ramsey North, born 1970 on Halloween, is an American
voice actor famous for voicing various characters in video
games since 1997. Some of his bigger roles include Deadpool
from Marvel, Nathan Drake from Uncharted and Desmond
Miles from the Assassin’s Creed franchise.
North follows the advise of an acting coach friend who
suggested he stopped playing a different character and
suggested he play himself in that character’s role. In doing so,
he started to get an appropriate sense of how to voice act.
Following the advise got Nolan roles in TV shows, movies,
video games and other forms of media.
That advise is fantastic as most of my voice actors are
inexperienced and possibly even new. Some of them won’t
have any experience at all and I’ll try and give them this
advise as this can help them get into a role easily.
htt
ps:
//
5. Welcome to Night Vale
Welcome to Night Vale is a podcast in the form of radio “community updates”.
It’s released bi-weekly and features a strange atmosphere of mystery and
horror. The show itself is rather strange as there isn’t many other shows like it.
During each episode there are usually four things that happen. Each episode
starts with the intro music and then moves onto starting part of a story that’s
contained completely in the episode. It then usually moves onto a segment
called “The Weather”. What the segment actually is is a song of the week. After
that section, it goes onto a small section of the overarching narrative if there is
one. After that, there’s generally a monologue after which the narrator tends to
say “Good night, Night Vale. Good night.” The outro music then plays.
The fictional town of Night Vale is inspired by the Hudson Valley area in the
United States. The creators of the show, Jeffrey Cranor and Joseph Fink have
stated that one of their biggest influences on the show is horror author Stephen
King. This is interesting as Fink said ““Night Vale” was never creepy. It kind of
surprised me when people started calling it that.”
The style of the show is a narrative in the form of a local radio’s talk show.
Despite being episodic and different each time, the show has a consistent
narrative. One of the first continuous narratives is the mayoral election and this
story continues through roughly the first 50 episodes of the show.
The influence of the podcast on my work is the style. As it’s a fairly modern
radio drama, I’ve been listening to it as research into what I need to feature in
my product. There are sound effects, unlike an audiobook, which is helpful to
know for the production of my own project.
htt
p:
//
6. Star Wars: Battlefront (2015) – Thermal
Imploder
• Messing around with synth
sounds
• This is what got me into sound
design
• How it’s made
• Influence on my work
