Brush Stroke- Inspirations and Influences

This post is to highlight what I was inspired by when I thought up the narrative and concept of Brush Stroke. Just to highlight the films narrative: Michael is a starving artist who loses his inspiration and has a very hard life. He then rediscovers his inspiration by literally entering paintings, he enters three in total and then creates a masterpiece that takes elements from all three. At the end of the film Michael discovers his best friend (who he loves without telling her) is engaged, he loses his job and is evicted, all in one day. After this Michael goes straight to his painting and finishes it off before he hangs himself to live in his painting. The ending however isn't that simple because we do not know if Michael is dead or if he is in the painting because Michael was unable to prove his power to Shannon and she said that he must have been day dreaming.

My first inspiration for this was Inception, the 2010 Christopher Nolan film which was best known for being somewhat confusing but it was remembered more by audiences because of its ambiguous ending where we are unsure which 'world' the main character is in, basically whether he is dreaming or not. (Photo taken from: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/inception-ending-christopher-nolan-finally-discusses-the-meaning-behind-that-spinning-top-10294480.html)

This was my inspiration because I love the way this film made you doubt what you had been shown before you and then leaves you hanging and to think what you want to. From here I wanted to make something similar but obviously I couldn't just copy the plot and the setting of going into dreams at will so I had to think of  a new twist on this. This is where my second inspiration comes into play.

(Photo taken from: http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/thepursuitofhappyness/)

As you can see this is the Pursuit of Happyness, in this film the main character is really down on his luck and struggling for money, it was this aspect that I wanted to put into my film that the main character is just a normal guy on the outside but behind that he is struggling and just looking for an escape from his harsh reality. However in this film it is a physical escape as he gets a solution by getting an internship, in my film he is just hiding from his problems by escaping into a new world. The third aspect of my film that I got inspiration for came from two places, one from a video game:

(Photo taken from: http://e-aagh.net/2011/11/remembering-oblivion/) 

This is from the video game oblivion, there is a quest where you have to go into a painting to save the artist of it who has gone in but is now trapped in there. This is a clear inspiration of mine as it is someone literally trying to escape their problems by entering a painting, however, it differs from mine as Michael doesn't do it intentionally but rather he discovers the ability by accident and has little control of when it works for him. The second inspiration for the painting worlds was What Dreams May Come starring Robin Williams.

(Photo taken from: https://www.yahoo.com/movies/robin-williams-fans-turn-toward-visions-of-him-in-94564567702.html)

In this film he isn't in the painting as a form of escapism but he is actually dead and is inside one of his wife's paintings. This also differs from mine because in this the world it is literally painted, whereas in mine it will look and feel like the real world but we know it isn't due to the set up. However this was still a strong inspiration for may film as this and the Oblivion game gave me the idea of 'What would it be like to be able to go into a painting?'