Open University First Exercises

So pretty much the first thing I've been asked to do in the OU course is describe in a few words the room I'm sitting in, and then think 'what if'...

So I described:

There are cut white roses in a glass vase on the table. The room is top lit giving them and each of the four walls the appearance of opaque glass.

And then indulged myself!

The blood red roses were clamped tightly to her cheek. When she looked up the colour so suffused her eyes that it was impossible to read her intentions.

Machinima Attempt no.2 and Elision Backstory

Moviestorm Take Two

Here is the second attempt at putting together Leean's Jenson Button interview with some Moviestorm animation. Showing some improvement I think, though its still very experimental! I'm hoping to cut some Creative Coffee Club interviews with Moviestorm next, as practice.

Elision Backstory

As my OU course has just begun. I thought it was worth mentioning I am planning on testing out some of my ideas for a prequel to Elision by exploring (Jen's boyfriend) Levi's life prior to moving back to England from Spain. I have had some fun thoughts about it so we shall see what happens!

Moviestorm 1st attempt

Apologies for the last gap in transmission. Here is my first attempt at making a video clip to go with some sound recorded in an interview with Jenson Button. This is just a short one.

Writing Short Course and Machinima 07

The Open University
Evening! It seems likely that my posting on this blog will change over the next twelve weeks; I am about to enrol on an Open University short course in Creative Writing. Since I shall be writing pieces for assessment during this time I hope to be able to publish them online instead of the usual chapters of Elision (obviously I will be back doing new chapters after the course finishes.)

Machinima
This weekend I spent some time at the European Machinima Festival in Leicester. Whilst much of what I saw and heard was completely mystifying, mindblowing and impressive, some aspects were very interesting to me personally, especially the idea of making short computer animated movies using some very clever technology called Moviestorm.

I am hoping to try and use this ('user friendly' I have been assured!) program to dramatize some projects in the near future. We shall see what happens!

Chapter Four (Part Two)

It was only a little later that Jen made her excuses, hugged and left Ethan and her dad at home deciding on pudding. She took her coat and, as soon as the door snicked shut on the latch behind her, she rang Lucy. They decided on a place from them to meet.

Jen quickly forgot about the awkwardness of dinner as she clacked along main road in her stubby black heels that needed fixing. Under the amber glow of the streetlamps the cold, draughts of air passed uncomfortably beside her neck. She pulled her coat a little closer, hunching her shoulders and as and she did Jen thought about her old flatmate.

Lucy Trean was two years older than Jen and had been in the year above her at university. She was the friend of a friend and sometime flatmate of Jen; they had become close in Lucy's final year and remained in touch while Jen finished her degree and Lucy was on her training contract.
Lucy was in Morford visiting her parents. It was a happy coincidence that they had both come from here; and it was also a fillip for Jen, who was rather missing her old friends now she had moved back. It had almost been the whole summer since she had seen anyone and she didn’t plan on missing the opportunity to see her.

They arranged by text to meet in a nice wine bar on a cobbled turning just off the high street. It was fairly busy when Jen arrived. Some of the patrons turned to size her up casually; it was the usual crowd thought Jen; slick hair and cheap suits or pressed shirts, jeans and work shoes. Jen ignored them as she peered round the room; she was there first. Seeing that it was already a quarter to ten, she brought a bottle of white wine and two glasses to the only table she could find. As she was sitting down, Lucy appeared.

Jen almost bounced back off the sofa as she got up again to say hello. Lucy looked almost exactly the same as she had done when Jen had last seen her. She had long white blonde hair that hung in loose curls down to the top of her neck. Her face was small and everything else about her was quite petite, despite the fact she stood nearly as tall as Jen.

“It’s so nice to see you” Jen felt suddenly elated as she sat back into the chair, “you look great. Oh I love your shoes” said Jen looking down and seeing a pair of cream leather Jimmy Choo’s.
“Thanks, well you look lovely too” said Lucy, as if she had been prompted to say it, but Jen didn’t notice.
“Sit down, sit down” she said excitedly “I got some wine? Are you well?” and then remembering herself she sat back down.
Lucy poured herself and Jen a glass of wine and sat back with a sigh, “yes, thanks; you got away from your parents then?”
Jen wondered momentarily if she should mention her mother, and decided against it, “yes finally” she said “did you ever meet them?”
“I don’t think so” Lucy obviously wasn’t interested; she had a mischievous look on her face, “I’ve done my duty too” looking positively feline as she pawed the rim of her glass. Jen watched her admiringly.
“Well I was so happy to hear you were coming down, you wouldn’t believe how long it has been since I saw anyone, since, like, just after graduation.”
“That happens” replied Lucy “you find that most of them are just friends of convenience... in the nicest possible way. You’re just in the same place at the same time, and then you’re not. Same thing happened to me.”
“I suppose,” Jen thought out loud, not really believing what Lucy had just said. “But, yes, about you, your new life. You have to tell me all about your new life in London. Is it amazing?”
“Yes, it’s amazing... busy, crazy, frantic” Lucy took a sip of her wine “It’s good to come back here sometimes, catch your breath!”
Jen carried on with her enquiries.
“So where are you living now?”
“Pimlico.”
“Pimlico” repeated Jen wistfully, “wow.”
“Yeah, it’s a nice little two bed flat.”
“...in a great place too” enthused Jen “and how’s work?”
“It’s good, going well, but it’s fucking hard!”
Jen started imperceptibly, she didn’t think she had ever heard Lucy swear before, “...but it’s exciting, new place, new job, new start.”
“Yes, but let’s just say they know how to take their pound of flesh.”
Again Jen was deaf to the complaint, “...but it must be amazing to be there, living on your own doing what you want.”
Lucy looked at her friend with a cocked head; ‘she really does think the grass is greener’ she thought. Lucy didn’t mind playing along, it felt good to be esteemed, if only a little bit.
“It is, yeah it is. Did I tell you I’ve got a boyfriend?”
“No!”

They talked for a while about Lucy’s boyfriend Tim, and then Levi and Jen tried to make him out as a man of wax too. As she did so, the disparity between how happy she supposed herself with the relationship and the reality of the matter became more manifest to her. After this she stopped talking about herself and continued to ask questions of Lucy about her life in London, the life that she knew she wanted. The conversation continued until the lights came on in the bar and they left with a hug and assurances they would do ‘it’ more often.

Revisions; 'Time of Year'

Rereading some of the earlier chapters has made me realise that I had set the start of the story too early, ie in the summer. The earliest it can take place is late september so that has needed some revision. If I have forgotten to change any other parts please let me know!

Chapter Four (Part One)

Dusk was creeping over head as Jen pushed past the low wooden gate of her parents’ house. As her foot touched the first stone of the short path that led to their front door she stopped; for the first time she felt the light reticence of a guest. She was a visitor to the house she had grown up in. For a novel realisation it felt oddly familiar and rather comforting. She looked up at the vicarage which still dominated the street from its receded position and at that angle the house seemed larger still. Its wide, brick front climbed to four floors, each of which was burnt through by glass boxes of light. It was an imposing sight.

Jen rustled around in her bag, not knowing what she had done with her house key. She was irritable; she could have been meeting some friends from university. She would rather have been doing that.

‘I shall try and get away early’ she thought as she gave up on the keys and rang the doorbell. She wasn’t waiting long before dad opened the door.

David James Field was a slight man of fifty three. He wore his thin shoulders and nascent gut with the same ease that was apparent in all his movements. Consequently his uncomfortable manner of speaking and frequent embarrassment at doing so was all the more obvious.

The peaks of his cheeks were always a ruddy crimson but he looked more flushed than usual as he mopped his brow with his trailing sleeve.

“Hello darling” he said with a breathless twinkle, and instantly she felt more at home.

Inside Jen opened the bottle of wine she had brought and poured out three glasses as she sat down next to her dad. The kitchen looked the same, stone floored and smart with hardwood cabinets, but it felt different without the fuss and efficiency of her mother and she felt vaguely uncomfortable facing the un-laid place where her mother always sat. Ethan smiled at her as he fetched the dishes steaming with leeks, potatoes and the carrots which smelled faintly of sugared aniseed.

“Remind me, I’ve got something to tell you” he said.

Dad wasn’t listening; instead, waving the carving knife, he looked intent upon the big pink ham, which sat before of him.

“Well isn’t it nice to have you both here,” he said to himself as he began to cut, “all together and we mustn’t forget your mother.”

Ethan sat down and they fell silent.

“Cheers” said Jen.

“Cheers” Ethan raised his glass, “to mum.”

“To mum.”

She watched as her dad cut the gammon and handed the first plate to her.

“They say all being well, she should be out next week” continued Ethan.

“That’s good news...” her dad agreed, looking in her direction. Jen felt faintly that they were doing this for her benefit “...isn’t it Jen?”

“I hope so” was all she could manage as she helped herself to some of the vegetables. She wasn’t feeling so confident about it all.

“She’s a strong one.”

‘No, Ethan, she’s not’ she thought with some irritation, ‘she’s human, and right now she’s very frail.’

“She’s certainly that” dad again acquiesced with his son.

Jen looked down and was trying to eat her way through this discussion. The irresponsibly upbeat tone in their voices was already irking her.

They continued eating.

Ethan began again, “before you know it, she’ll...”

“How have things improved, did they tell you?”

“Well no, but...”

“Then let’s face it,” she knew they knew “-it’s not the first time they’ve said that...”

Her dad stopped chewing momentarily.

“...is it?” Jen looked down again feeling that she shouldn’t have spoken.

Ethan stopped drinking. He put his glass down more heavily than he intended; the noise exploded through the quiet of the hard surfaced room.

“She’s going to be fine. It might just take a while longer.”

They all paused.

‘Blind’ she pressed the nail of her thumb into her forefinger to stop her saying anything, ‘blind, blind, bloody hope.’ She couldn’t help herself. “Will she?” said Jen again wishing she hadn’t.

“Jen,” her dad’s voice was so smooth and so directing that she fell dumb, “I know that you are worried. We’ll all be glad to have mummy home.”

There was something odd in his voice and she couldn’t ignore it.

“Of course we will, but...”

She looked over at her brother and her words slowed.

“...I’m...” she thought better of it “....I’m just, I’m mean...” she stopped, “I just hate this.”

She looked down then over at her brother, who was wiping the corner of his mouth with his napkin.

He wore a beatific smile which, in her eyes like light through a prism split into its constituent parts; there was both love and sorrow, but mainly shining back was a stream of pity. Despite herself she felt riled and could not help returning him a look of dull resentment. She was the eldest of the two, by three years. He had it so easy; she had to make her own way in the world. Work hard to get to university, then to be saddled with expectations and debt which she had little clue how to extricate herself from.

He had taken the easy option, dropping out of college, working for dad, and they were still so close, he and dad in a way that made her yearn jealously for childhood and the family.

“Come on Jen, ‘worry is just interest paid on trouble before it is due,’” he meant it to comfort, but realised immediately that it had only irritated his sister.
She looked about her, bridling at being patronised she just about managed to bite her tongue, ‘he is just a child, and his life is still so uncluttered’. “What?”
He heard the tone in that word, he saw it rising in her eyes. It was coming. By now Jen was off.
“I only meant that...” He didn’t get time to finish before Jen started again. It felt like she had been waiting all the meal for this.
“You don’t know that, you don’t get to just say that, you’re not sure.”
“But there’s no point in worrying...”
“How can you say that?”
“Well what’ll it do? What can we possibly do?” He repeated, exasperated.
“We just need to be... there for her.”
“Well what if something does happen? She’s in hospital.”

She was the first person in her family to go to university; she always had something to prove, to show him what should be done.

“Why think about that now? Nothing might happen...”
She needed to calm down.
“There’s nothing we can do...”
She looked at her dad “what about... him?” Her voice strained again.
“Come on you two,” David reached out and took both their hands. Jen reluctantly let him take hers, “you shouldn’t be arguing over this, we all care.”
Silence fell around the table again. Jen started eating, followed by her brother.
“Well, I don’t feel like a guest anymore,” she said thinking that many a true word is spoken in jest. Ethan smirked back at her.
They continued eating in silence.
“So how’s life in the family business?” Jen phrased the question to dad implying pointedly the lack of independence in her brother’s life.
“Well” he began.
Ethan looked at his father while he spoke and avoided Jen’s eye, knowing exactly what she meant by going down this conversation. He felt the distance between himself and his sister was growing and although he didn’t realise it, at that moment he was just like she was only a few short years ago.