Erik Knudsen

University of Central Lancashire | UCLAN · Department of Media Practice

To embark on the making of a feature film is sheer madness. Yet some of us cannot help but be driven to engage with this form by adopting creative and managerial methods, routines, processes and discourses that help us navigate our way towards creating some kind of impact. In this chapter, I seek to describe and articulate an example of a film proj...

On the basis of understanding the journey that an idea takes, this chapter will look to examine the nature of creativity itself in this process. Referencing anecdotal experiences and case studies from the StoryLab International Film Development Research Network workshops, this chapter will explore how patterns—personal prejudicial patterns, thought...

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 insig...

In this chapter we will ask a number of questions: How are we moved to create? What drives us? What is it we want to express? Starting from the Self—that paradoxical Jungian notion of the deeply personal selfless interaction with the, largely subconscious, collective whole—this chapter will look at feelings and their role in causing and motivating...

This chapter will look at why we want to tell stories. Why are stories important? Indeed, why are they necessary? What is their relationship to feelings, emotions and the intellect? As storytellers, what is it we are trying to achieve by communicating from one human to another? This is such a vast subject that we shall briefly touch on it in the se...

In this chapter, with reference to three case study examples from the StoryLab International Film Development Research Network workshops, we will summarise the key aspects of Finding the Personal Voice in Filmmaking and identify some of the most important hurdles to overcome for the practical filmmaker.

As screenwriting continues to establish itself as a discrete discipline in academia, either in alignment with creative writing departments or film and media practice departments, there is a danger that such developments may entrench a distancing of the craft from the cinematic form itself and that such a distancing may ultimately reinforce the scre...

Eyes and eye lines are one of the key ways in which the perspective on a story is established in figurative narrative fiction cinema. As such, the eyes and the use of eyes by a performer need as much creative and technical attention as shot composition, sound, production design and editing. Rather than thinking of the eyes of a performer as a subse...

The paper aims to outline the importance of linking personal experience with craft skills and creative expression, specifically through one or two educational approaches. The argument is that any profound learning of media skills and creative expression can only happen in the context of an awareness of purpose, and that if purpose does not stretch...

Key features: • Five sections covering creativity and creative documentary and the contemporary creative industries: strategies for developing documentary ideas; the art of documentary narrative; digital production methods; new documentary forms; distribution and financing. • Provides a comprehensive overview of critical thought and techniques in d...

Nations and peoples are largely the stories they feed themselves. If they tell themselves stories that are lies, they will suffer the consequences of those lies. If they tell themselves stories that face their own truths, they will free their histories for future flowerings. (Okri 1995: 21) What defines the classic narrative is also at the root of...

This report seeks to summarise the process and outcomes of a practice-based research project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and undertaken during the academic year 2005/2006. The primary outcome of the project is the film Heart of Gold (40 min) and the purpose here is to augment and expand this primary outcome.

The relative lack of success for British films in the marketplace is often cited as being rooted in the lack of quality screenplays. As the primary strategic body for film in Britain, the UK Film Council subscribes to this broad analysis and has identified training as one of the key strategies for overcoming this weakness. In this article, I questi...

One Day Tafo is a uniquely poetic film, transcending generally accepted form. Being half Danish, half Ghanaian - and thereby a consequence of a marriage of cultures - the filmmaker embarks on a spiritual exploration of what connects people and peoples. It is a film which goes beyond the socio-political and anthropological issues seen in most films...

Identical teenage twin girls, one of whom has cancer, escape their stifling middle-class home life in search of their natural father, whom they have not seen since infancy. Their adventure, fuelled by a unique spiritual bond and aspiration, leads them through a northern British city during one night, in which they experience, through episodic enco...

Set in the Akim Abuakwa region of Ghana, Heart of Gold is a poetic documentary exploring the changing relationship people in the region have with gold. Traditionally considered to possess a spirit like any other sentient being, gold has played an imprtant part in the history and mythology of Ghana. This is still evident today, though this relations...

On losing his job, Philip Brannigan finds himself unable to return home to face the family with his news. His entire material world is about to collapse. In his confused state, and challenged by an elderly stranger, he adopts a religious sandwich board found in the park where he has spent the night. And so begins his journey across the UK. What a...

Bed of flowers is an evocative and contemplative documentary revealing the inspiring experience involved in the creation of a unique theatre production. Depicting the creation of the Lancashire (UK) based Horse and Bamboo Theatre Company's production of their show, The Girl Who Cut Flowers, Bed of Flowers gives us an in-depth insight into the crea...

What happens when you want to die, but can't? What happens when you want to live, but can't? Sarah wanted to die - but didn't quite make it. Trapped in a body paralysed by immobility and silence, Sarah wants to live - but can't quite make it. Signs of Life is an intimate film about the will to live and the power of thought and feelings in that p...

Reunion is a creative documentary exploring spirituality and our perception of the spiritual. Using a mixture of fiction and documentary genres, archive footage and animation, we are directed to look once again at nature and our relationship to it, and at our relationship towards the question of life after death. In Reunion, we are taken on a jour...