Contextual Research & Statement PowerPoint

1. Contextual Research
Hayao Miyazaki
Hayao Miyazaki was born 5th January 1941, Bunkyo city, Tokyo, Japan. His is a Japanese comic book
artist, director, producer, screenwriter, author and animator. He directed and wrote the works of
Nausicaä of the valley of the wind (1984), castle in the sky (1986), my Neighbor Totoro (1988), spirited
away (2001) and many other animated films. Before he became the co-founder of studio Ghibli, in 1985
after the release of his produced and written animated films, in 1963 Mr Miyazaki join Toei animation
which specialised in Japanese animated films after his education at Gakushuin university within the same
year.
Mr Miyazaki champions love and the individual spirit which is clearly manifested within his films, such as
spirited away, whereby the audience experiences journey of Chihiro Ognio (main character). Within the
story she enters a surrealistic dimension from a family trip with her parents which begins when her family
wants to explore the depths beyond a mysterious tunnel which, for the main character causes her to
enter another world full of transformational introspection and meaning. However, this is only developed
through hard work as she must navigate her way around the new world's paradox of materialism induced
ransom of labour which is needed for her to escape the world and come back to the normal realm of
reality which she needs to do because her parents are also within this new world. Yet, they are practically
imprisoned in the form of pigs which is a big negative for Chihiro hence the parents cannot communicate
within the world to their daughter which creates an emotional and motivational bridge for the main
character too explore and emulate the power and love in the community to unchain her and her family
so that they can be free.
Hayao Miyazaki’s quote that reflects and synergises with his personality is that of, “Always believe in
yourself. Do this and no matter where you are, you will have nothing to fear.” I think that this equates
perfectly to his stories because the love that is displayed is patterned within truths that can be related to
within the real world since it's not a cliche string of events that occur but is a journey that truthfully lays
out all the obstacles leading to the various situations. Although on the surface his films may seem like a
mere hyperbolic representation of an altered, wacky universe, it's actually because of that very reason of
its distinct and vibrant animation that it feels more relatable and realistic since the visual representation

2. of real life it's blurred but the philosophical undertones remain which feels, as an audience member,
more emotionally gripping and uplifting.
Although Hayao Miyazaki has not officially announced that he certifiable believes in Animistic religion,
which sees gods and spirits in all of life and exaggeratessynergisms from nature, he had this to say about
it “I do not believe in Shinto (Japanese Religion)”, “But I do respect it, and I feel that the animism origin of
Shinto is rooted deep within me”. This makes sense as he often applies meaning or more meaning to
things of which a perceived to be not so meaningful like the pigs in spirited awaywhich had the soul of
the parents of Chihiro. We also saw meaning in the gold that was being mined for which transformed into
something greater then was thought possible as well as spirits which translated into various tonalities
throughout the story.
For my own film I think that Hayao Miyazaki will have a positive impact upon my decisions when going
into preproduction for my product, considering the knowledge from his mindful passion that he puts into
his writing, animating and producing. His stories and animations have opened me up to more possibilities
for my fantasy trailer as I now see the depth of thought within the films, he createsto make links within
his fantasy stories, to synergies with the real world.
Hayao’s ability to produce visual animations to tell a story is second to none, as he uses metaphorical
meaning within his works to add upon the story that wouldn’t be understood by reading the book, as we
have a clearer notion of what his vision was when he worked at writing and producing his films. From
learning about Mr. Miyazaki’s animated films I will be taking his influence with me as I now intend to
think about creating visual sequences to formulate deeper meaning and references within my trailer
because seeing it be executed with such structure as motivated me to go in a similar direction when in
production and postproduction.
Information:
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/spirits-gods-and-pastel-paints-weird-world-master-animator-hayao-
miyazaki-1880974.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayao_Miyazaki
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0594503/?ref_=tt_ov_dr
https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/60023642?source=35

3. Lewis Carroll
Lewis Carroll, born 27th
January 1832, wastheinfamous author behind the
fantasy story, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and other highly regarded
poems like the Jabberwocky & The Walrus and the Carpenter. On 14th
January
1898 Guildford, Surrey, England Daresbury, Cheshire, England atthe age of 65
years old.
Lewis Carroll was raised by his father who was a high-status member of the
Anglican Church. Lewis was taught the same traditional Christian values as his
dad. As Lewis Carroll got older into his career of writing books and poems, his

4. spiritual side became more dominate his writing which makes sensebecause
to produce such works thatcombine literary nonsensewith magical realism
within a story, there would need to be another influence going on.
His approach to his work was unorthodox, in comparison to the average
author, to say the least hence Lewis Carrolhad to endure chronic migraines,
stammering, epilepsy, ADHD, and partial deafness which was why he made
such fantastical movies because he look at life through a different lens all the
time which made his writings second to noneas he almost didn’t even need to
try to think outsidethe realm of reality because from societies point of view,
his fascinating ideas that come from his life seemed to be permanently
consistent, which is evident through all his novels.
Lewis Carrol’s work has inspired me to pursuemy own fantasy trailer because
in his stories, like in Alice Adventures in Wonderland, he uses concepts within
literature that go beyond the normalrealm of what is possible. This includes
the transformation holethat Alice falls through to travel to the Wonderland,
which is a place full of magic, that she mustnavigate herself around. To a
different degree, I will be using a trope of time travelin my film to create
surrealistic advantages for the main character in my stories, so he can progress
forward.
I feel like Lewis Carrol’s stories havesparked my interest of using fantasy
aspects to benefit the characters and create meaning. I may usevisual effects
and colour correction to create emotional meaning within my film trailer. Such
as references and symbolisms that would relate to the concept of time travel
and the mystical aesthetic of my story to mould a more coherent watching
experience for my audience. Similarly, in the film for Alice in Wonderland, they
use specific visual techniques to emphasis the storylineso that the film is more
understandablefor the audience.
Information:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Carroll
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lewis-Carroll

5. C. S. Lewis
Who is he?
Clive Staples Lewis was an author who was born 29th
November 1898, in
Belfast Ireland. His life came to an end 22nd
November 1963 in Oxford at the
age of 64. He went to Oxford University 1925–1954 and Cambridgefrom 1954–
1963. Lewis was the author behind the 1950’s novelTheLion, the Witch and
the Wardrobeand the entirety series of Narnia. He was mostfamous for
making fictional and fantasy stories like Narnia, The Space Trilogy & The
ScrewtapeLetters. These wherescience fiction but had resemblances of
spirituality and religion at the same time like in Narnia whereby God is
depicted within the text as the Lion who is resurrected after being thought to
have been killed. This creatively intelligent bridge of understandable
surrealisms within his fantasy stories lead to these novels to be modern
classics within literature as within the modern era the film industry has made
three big buget films from the novels.
C.S. Lewis transitioned frombeing baptised in The Church of Ireland to growing
out of his religion when he became an adult then coming back to Anglicanism
because it was his path in life. Seeing this intertwining of realism and
surrealism within his novels would makepeople to believe that a lot of the
influence came from his philosophicaland religious view that had shifted
because after being on both sides of theism and atheism he probably came to
a more objective and personally grounded outlook on life, which he used to his
advantagewhen producing fictional stories.
Lewis was a creative mastermind and often used metaphors to emphasise and
to make elements that made up his stories seem more understandableand

6. interesting for his audience. He used inspirations from his religion to expand
upon and to connect with his science fiction, mystical novels stories so that the
Christian audience can enjoy his novels as well, which they did in that day.
A great quote that Lewis has this notion about writing, “In writing. Don’tuse
adjectives which merely tell us how you wantus to feel about the thing you are
describing. I mean, instead of telling us a thing was “terrible,” describeit so
that we’ll be terrified. Don’tsay it was “delightful”; make us say “delightful”
when we’ve read the description. You see, all thosewords (horrifying,
wonderful, hideous, exquisite) are only like saying to your readers, “Pleasewill
you do my job for me.” Which I thought was an insightfulbecause he his
educating people to create emotion in literature rather than to say emotion,
which is such a simple thing to think about, yet if excited well, it can make your
writing feel powerfuland impactful on the audience.
Though my film will be set in the present day and Narnia is located in a fantasy
location, a concept within this existing literature involves the usageof a
wardrobeas a transportation device to travel to a differentdimension. This
forces the main characters to need to solve problems that come up in their
journey becauseof the situation they are confronted with. Similarly, I have
planned to use a time machine as a mechanism for the main character in my
film to attempt to reserves a negative issuethat arises in the story as the main
characters friend is murdered by a villain.
Information
https://nicolebianchi.com/c-s-lewis-writing-rules/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._S._Lewis

7. Contextual Statement
I want to make a film that is inclusiveof the fantasy genre. I haveresearched
C.S. Lewis, Lewis Carroll and Hayao Miyazaki’s books and films which gave me
ideas and insightinto the realm of fantasy. I like the idea of traveling through
time as the possibilities are endless which is why I will be using that aspect of
the genre in my film, which was influenced via the surrealistic breaking of

8. normally through these films that created a subjectivespark for my decision to
take this creative pursuitfor my film.
Another major influence and a fantasy story is Dr Who which draw similarities
to the time travelling aspects of my planned film.
When deciding what my film would be about, I remembered watching a
science fiction film that had many time dimensions, which caused me to think
about my own film concept that I could develop around the possibility of my
character navigating his way through time travel.
Due to COVID-19 therearemany restrictions through time which keep
changing so it will make the planning for production difficult. I will need to be
flexible with my planning as restrictions alter.