Inspiration and influences on Magicians Veil

Through its many forms of script there have been a lot of different influences and inspirations, what we have arrived at takes parts from all of them and rejects other sections.

At its inception it was described to me as a "gritty realistic" portrayal of urban magic, despite it not turning out this way in the end it immediately pointed us in the direction of films such as This is England (2006 Shane Meadows) and many other Meadows films. They encouraged us to add an aspect of violence and or drugs that in "gritty British" films unfortunately represent Britain realistically. This model isn't just perpetuated by Meadows, many British films, specifically those set in London, portray Britain in this way such as Harry Brown (2009 Daniel Barber) and Kidulthood (2006 Menhaj Huda). We attempted to add a more violent and drug orientated subplot to the film but on development it became clear that this style was not right for the lightheartedness of the film. 

For some time we moved in the opposite direction, it was suggested in one of our feedback sessions that we consider our audience, could this be a children's or family film? This lead us to look a little at films like The Sorcerer's Apprentice (2010 Jon Turteltaub) which deals with magic in a very realistic way. We kept the realistic aspect of the film but didn't want a family audience, a lot of our comedy comes from our character who's traits depend on his rudeness and brash qualities which contrast comically with the magicians manners.

Another film which springs to mind for me, in reference to both narrative and characteristic inspiration is The Fisher King (1991 Terry Gilliam). The slight arc at least of characters being introduced to new worlds fits nicely. The characters also share similar but not exact characteristics, at very least they are similarly opposite and the ways in which they react to one another and ultimately work together similarly reflects our film.



This is England, 2006, Meadows S. UK, Big Arty Productions, Film4.
Harry Brown, 2009, Barber D. UK, UK Film Council.
Kidulthood 2006, Huda M. UK, Stealth Films, Cipher Films.
The Sorcerer's Apprentice, 2010,Turteltaub J. USA, Walt Disney Pictures, Jerry Bruckheimer Films.
The Fisher King, 1991, Gilliam T. USA, Columbia Pictures Corporation