About Me

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Plymouth, Devon, United Kingdom
Started my career as a young musician/singer during the early to late 70's and went on to study all art disciplines including: photography, graphic print-layout,stage production, radio production, fine art (painting)and Film. Now completing my BA degree in Fine-Art at Plymouth College of Art 2012

My video work

The Other side of Midnight..Future short










©YKTurner
Alice Springs' features in this suspense thriller with a twist....

Proposal script: A middle-aged woman (ALICE SPRINGS), living alone in a council flat, suspects that she is being targeted for a robbery. Her otherwise simple and ordered life turns to paranoia and fear when her suspicions are aroused after she sees three youths surreptitiously filling a lock-up with what she believes to be stolen goods. Broken pot plants, mysterious noises and knocks on the door in the night raise tensions as a story unfolds that couldn't be further from the truth.
Update 15/03/10 The Story so far (copyrighted material)
'Alice Springs is a woman who lives alone in a tidy but compact ground floor apartment at the heart of a city council estate. She has few visitors and a simple lifestyle.  In Alice’s world everything has to be ordered, a balance so as not to upset the equilibrium but sometimes that balance can topple with unforeseen circumstances. There is evidence of a history that we’re not privy to, communicated only through glimpses of her surroundings, artefacts and evidence of history. Preferring to keep a very low profile; her clothes do not sing of extravagance instead they reflect a life of some hardship. She is by no means unattractive but to others life may have seemed to pass her by. Altogether, Alice's existence went almost unnoticed , that is until the mystery of the lock-up turned  her seemingly ordinary life upside down.
UPDATE  1/04/10
Break
We are now into the Easter break for 2 weeks but progress on the script must continue. To date I have only completed 3 minutes of about 25 mins, becoming distracted with trial After Effects shorts. It do have an ulterior motive though as I am planning to use some time remapping and colour correction at least in that programme. That's my excuse and partly true. So a little Easter break for me and then total focus.      
Personal logs 12/04/10
So, yesterday I decided to combine relaxation (allotment) with testing out my 'windows '98' laptop I bought  on ebay for £23. The intention was to use it to write my logs for the script development. Wrong! It took 30 mins to load windows by which time the battery was running low and I couldn't see the screen or find the stupid mouse!! Good job I brought a pen and paper, only now I have to decipher everything and retype it! 
SCRIPT LOG 12/04/10
I've written the first three minutes of script introducing Alice Springs for the first time. All the notes and descriptions of hers and other character developments can be found in my full project review folder. 
Update: Personal Update 23/04/2010
My work has been temporarily interrupted with a request for help from a colleague. I’ve just spent 18 hours in a studio (lighting and camera) pretending I could see robots at a seminar. Although I would love to get more deeply involved in this project and indeed helped in developing the original idea for the scrip, my time should definitely shift back to my script. I have more belief in the story now, as new elements are developing from my notes. 
Update: 3/05/10
Finally I've got just over half the 1st draft done, which doesn't mean I can breath yet but at least the flow is there and the story is reading like a short film.
Update: 7/05/10
Writing a 2nd draft  but there is still no ending. reading over the rough 1st draft I've realised just how much more I have to do. At the moment there's 16 pages without much action and too much direction so I want to cut it in half at least and bring the action in nearer the beginning. 
Update 19/05/10
Completed a 2nd draft cutting out the twiddly bits that  are so unnecessary but am still without an ending. The pressure cooker is on and it's time to solve a puzzle.Who is ALICE? Deadlines are looming.
I must!!!
1). Establish Alice
2).Build a scenario.
3).Build tension.
4). Climax to an outcome.
Update 20/05/10
Alice's fate.
Deciding on Alice's fate is leading me to her past.I ask myself the question,'Do I want her to be evil or not?' and if she is then she needs a secret.This can give strength to the short story where the characters must make quick contact with the audience.I know big scene changes are to come.
Update 22/05/10
I think I may have to change the story line!
I've been trying to adapt the characters to the original story line but that DOESN'T WORK! The characters and motive hence outcome becomes weak. Time for a radical review.Alice is becoming more of a nightmare, she's even creepy. Surprise, and now I realise that Alice's world is caving in from the inside.I'm digging deeper for a reason and reasons need resolutions. Whatever happens, now I know it shouldn't be revealed until the very end.
Update 24/05/10
Started on a 3rd draft, as I thought the last one was lacking direction.There's been a radical storyline change to accommodate a new line of enquiry into Alice's past, I think it's going to work in the overall scheme of things. It's made the script more cohesive and given it a definitive purpose, which will be revealed.I have a rough ending in mind that will probably develop as I re-write.The script is completely changing course to accommodate all aspects of plot development. At this point, although the original idea is relatively intact the roles of the characters are taking on a much more definitive form and their relationships are developing. This is making the storyline take a  clearer course. Doors spring to mind! What's behind the door or doors? This reminds me of a scene from The Italian Job, when they test the explosive on the truck and Michael Caine's best line in the film "You only had to blow the bloody doors off'.  The element of surprise.
Update 25/05/10
Moving and deleting scenes.
This is exactly like editing. I'm clearing the canvas ready for the new storyline. No more boringly long intro that doesn't go anywhere. Straight in with clues. Seeding the plot.As I run through the beginnings of a new script it's obvious that the whole time-line is out of place. The characters are beginning to get to me! More correction.
Update 26-27/05/10
Pulling the action in.
By pulling in the action to the first 8 pages it means my outcome will arrive earlier.
Question! How do I give time for character development while still having a thriller ending?
Answer! I give each character almost an equal amount of screen time and each scene must tell a story in itself.No room for twiddly bits right? I've discovered it's very easy to leave holes in the story by too many quick scene changes so where there is dialogue I want it to be meaningful to the plot as well as realistic.So, cutting out flowery lines and getting directly to the point.My number of pages has decreased already and the story is flowing much better.I also find that trying not to imagine too much cinematography helps a lot.I've decided that flashbacks is a way to knit the story together, now all I have to decide is, in what order and when? Remembering to keep it flowing.
Update 28/05/10
Ending in sight.
Introducing Alice's background early on has given me the surprise ending I was looking for.I've now contained the story and almost have a direct route to the ending in sight.Although as yet, even I don't know what that will be, exactly.I feel excited about getting this far, as there have been many times throughout the writing when I wanted to give it up as 'lost in translation'. There was a story inside me waiting to erupt but not the way I thought it should be told.I need to have the last third of my film script for a resolution, thriller style, with all the main characters coming together in some way and tied to the plot.Reveal their true identities and establish their reason for being there! Alice has a DARK SECRET!Oh good, more fodder for the cannon.I am shocked at how the script is now telling it's own story.I just seem to be the go-between who's doing all the work!
Update 29/05/10
The Title must go!
On reflection, this is no longer the original story of depression and anxiety. The story is lifted into different realms and dealing with a subject that wasn't in the original storyline, bullying, Psychological as well as physical.Every character that leaps into the story is real because I've met them in all walks of life and had first hand experience of both types of bullying, as a child and adult.So the ending very much depends on how I feel and this has more than likely been the greatest influence on the outcome.The new title is "Behind Closed Doors"
Update 30/05/10
Started 4th Draft.
It's getting really exciting, I'm so close to finishing.My characters have come together in a cohesive and organised list of scenes that reflects the true story but still without the decisive ending.I don't mean how it will end more like when.I'm finding I have to be more economical with the scene cuts towards the end, bringing the whole thing to a climax without it falling flat but now I have 50 different ways to finish it. I've had to make lots of fine adjustments in making the delivery better and keeping the pace.It's coming to a bloody finale and everything is beginning to make sense. I can hear myself saying, 'oh so that's why that happened. It's crazy.I've even been shocked at the depths some of the characters will go to and find that putting myself in that space to write it is a dangerous place to be but so rewarding.I get to choose how it ends for now!
Update 31/05/10
This is it.
Having left the script last night as a finished piece, today I'm contemplating the polished version. I'm anticipating a few tweaks  but with only 3 more days to hand-in and another project to finish it will have to wait until tomorrow.Hopefully when I read it back I'll find all the elements in place.
Update 
The characters have truly sprung to life since I changed the back story and everything's in place. I just want to add a little more zing and pepper, give the characters a little more edge. Making sure I haven't missed any details, it's easy to create black holes as you zip along the script but at this stage just changing one small thing can affect all the other scenes. I'm satisfied (almost) at the scene orders but I'm sure there's probably a little more changing to do.Still correcting the more powerful scenes ie. dialogue and actions (nitty gritty stuff).Trying to keep it economical.It's inevitable that snippets of our own characters  come out in the script and maybe even a part of me in every character! The fear of what you could be (at the extreme).I am trying to create a thriller to the end so as people won't get bored, so I'm hanging on to 'what really happened' til the last moments.OOps got to move a very delicate scene or I give away the plot too soon. That's a major headache because I'm tired and it's easy to lose the thread at 3 am or so.The consequences of that is that I've had to delete and move several scenes and now to include one final cameo character (me) as a witness.Now read-re-read and read again and hope I don't have any more changes.
Update 2/06/10
There are minute corrections only and no MAJOR problems thank God so I'm going to call it a wrap! and print the Final Draft.
A SCRIPT IS BORN and I'm not going to give away any spoilers. You'll have to wait until I make the film, probably next year.
Only 27 pages long. (this is coursework remember) but hopefully I've achieved all the things I set out to do in the original presentation back in March.
Conclusion
Initially, when I started with the idea I knew that things would change throughout the writing process. What I didn't expect was to battle against myself. Perhaps I was apprehensive but I think that the pivotal point came for me when I had to tell myself that I was a writer and not a cinematographer in this project. I tend to work visually most of the time and what this has taught me is that to a certain extent that part of it has to be left behind for the sake of the script.Another important point to make is that letting go of things that don't work is a cathartic (I hate that word) experience. Once I had let go, the story was free to do what it wanted under my guidance and at the end it took on a life of it's own telling ME what I should be doing and it frightens the living hell out of me!This is my first experience at screen-writing and using Final Draft and it's been an amazing journey.