Filmmaking / Directing : Creative Influences: What Shaped Your Work This Year? by Ashley Renee Smith

Training under Legendary AlphaBabes (Pamela Jaye Smith and Sophia Stewart and Miss Vera Benton). WHY - These 3 Women pointed me in the Right Direction to seek Higher Ground and to connect with the Pleroma (the Fullness).....

Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein influenced a Fantasy Action feature script I'm outlining, Ashley Renee Smith. Mainly the way he handled the relationship between Frankenstein and Frankenstein's monster and SPOILER!: how both characters changed.

Hello Ashley Renee Smith

I hope you’re doing well.

For me, inspiration is an accumulated process—so many different things come together, and each one helps develop a new world, all in parallel.

Here are a few examples from this year alone:

The film Mr. Nobody inspired The De-Evolution Game with its exploration of parallel universes and branching possibilities.

A paleontology documentary about extinct marine species inspired The Oceanic War.

I was watching those ancient creatures and suddenly asked myself:

What if Earth turned into a giant ocean?

How would people survive, and what would happen next?

Inspiration arrives from everywhere, and each spark becomes the seed of a new universe.

Videogames and anime, mostly. For example, the works of Leiji Matsumoto (Galaxy Express 999, Queen Millennia, Space Pirate Captain Harlock) gave me the idea to make my own shared universe, and games like "Metal Gear Solid" and "Deus Ex" helped me strike a balance between epic and straightforward, and here are the lessons I've learned.

1. Don't have more than 4 main characters if you can help it - the fewer, the better (I colour-code mine - red, blue, yellow and green - based on their personalities and importance within the story's narrative).

2. KISS Principle (Keep It Simple, Stupid) - you can make your story feel big without it being overly convoluted (I'm looking at you, Hideo Kojima).

3. Make characters feel human and morally grey - nobody likes a straight-up goody-two-shoes or an evil bastard who is evil for the sake of it.

4. If you're going to be inspired by a previous work, then try to add your own ingredients to the recipe.

5. Don't try to appease the big shots - this is something I only recently learned a few years ago. I've wasted so much time focusing on getting a foot in the door, that I lost sight of why I started writing in the first place 20 years ago... my God, has it been that long? No wonder I'm depressed if I haven't made any progress since then!

6. Let your imagination run wild.

Combine all these methods together in what I call the Pavone Principle of Writing, and you'll be a lot happier than I ever have been.

I've been really bad about consuming media for most of the year, but when I got the chance to, I reread NANA and Paradise Kiss which reaffirmed my commitment to dramatic character dramas and more mature narratives (which is to say, playing things straight rather than nerfing yourself, being honest and authentic). I've also been feeding off of the Oniisama E anime (also known as Dear Brother) whose art style I love, whose story is melodramatic as all hell but that's exactly why I love it.

I've as such been more committed to my nostalgia addict tastes and hope to emulate the works I love. So if Finding Elpis, futuristic though it still is, feels like the child of all its influences and stands on the shoulders of giants rather than on their necks, I will consider it a huge success.

Honestly, my biggest inspiration this year didn’t come from any film or series.

It came from my own life.

I come from a multi-cultural family, and the mix of backgrounds, languages, and emotional worlds around me has shaped my writing more than anything else.

Every story I create carries a bit of that complexity — the beauty, the friction, and the layers that only exist in families like ours.

So my inspiration wasn’t artistic… it was personal.

Maurice Vaughan, I've heard that the new Frankenstein is incredible! I haven't seen it yet, but I can't wait to over the holidays.

Hey everyone :)

I am making a point of watching old movies. I watched Chinatown for the first time this year and also Blow Out. And the why, is because I am loving to watch story run the story and less MCU effects.

The new Frankenstein is incredible, Ashley Renee Smith! I might make a Screenwriting Lounge post about it next week. No spoilers of course.

Hi Ashley, I have been binge watching all of the HIghlander TV series and am almost done. Aside from how yummy Adrian Paul was, I am really accessing the deeper level of the allegory about Soul's eternal journey. Having recently published my book, 'What's the Real Deal with Karma?' ~ Understanding the Spiritual Law of Cause and Effect, which explores Karma and Reincarnation, the challenges the characters in the series face are very similar to the ones we, on our eternal journey, face here on Earth.

Thank you Ashley Renee Smith for this amazing information today. I just rewatched "A Star is Born" with Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper, last weekend. The songs and performance are so unbelievable well done, that I ended up listening to the music again and again. - Very energizing for me!

I am fascinated by human stories; we all have one, right? Podcasts have been a great source of inspiration for me personally. I find that as I'm listening to people chat about their life or experience, a spark of an idea germinates in my mind.

Wide range of influences, (TV) from Reservation Dogs, to the Chosen, to Still Standing; film: Big Sick, Sound of Metal, Manchester by the Sea

I just returned from a trip to Cassis, France. It turned out to be a time for me to slow down, take a step back and be in the moment. Taking in the beautiful architecture, expansive views, museums, castles, etc... I found myself inspired from just being in the present moment. It was such a life lesson for me in how I choose to move forward in my life now that I am back in the states, returning to my daily life with all its distractions. I try to recall the feeling I had every day on my trip - just taking a breath and allowing myself to be present in this moment. It's really helping to ground me and give me more clarity - which also helps to fuel my creativity.

Wide range of influences. I’ve watched movies this past weekend I normally would not watch to see the storytelling and the use of music . It’s amazing what you notice once you start writing.

I wrote a film noir script this year, which took me out of my comfort zone of romantic comedies. I spent a few months binge watching some of the black-and-white classics like "The Third Man" and modern gems like "The Last Seduction." Those two films helped shape my foray into the genre, and I enjoyed the process so much that I might write another.

So nice to meet everyone today :)

Love Rod Serling, creator of the Twilight Zone. Recent visits inspired my logline: Cinderella Possibilities (Title)

One out of 2 single Black women will never marry, unless a Black-Prince-of-a-man comes to the rescue from a world that has never known slavery and racial discrimination.

I am loving NOBODY WANTS THIS on Netflix--the storylines, the snappy banter, etc. It's a reminder that RomComs are evergreen, and the fact that the lead male has flaws but isn't flawed in a toxic way is SO refreshing.

I've been loving everything on Criterion, so I'd say alot more international and classic work has caught my attention!

Sinners, Weapons, IT Welcome to Derry, Peacemaker

Over the past year, the film that impressed me most was, Call Me by Your Name. I wasn't sure that I would like it, but the depth and emotion that came through were very impressive. I also loved the normalization of human feelings that are often discounted.

I would have to say that 90% of the films out there are of little interest to me. Many have far too much violence. The protagonist is often only the good killer, or often just a somewhat likeable villain, an anti-hero. I look for films that are important, that offer a new perspective or offer a possible solution to a problem we face in the world today. Unfortunately, these are usually docs. The best doc I saw this year, actually I watched it twice, was "Invisible Nation."

It is the story of Taiwan, and it's first woman President. A nation that faces a potential takeover by its gigantic neighbor, China. It is a bastion of Democracy.

Thank you for the question, Ashley! I saw a LOT of movies in this year, my favorites are: Interstellar, Inception, Dr. Strangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Véletlenül írtam egy könyvet/I Accidentally Wrote A Book (this is a Hungarian movie), Arrival, Rou (this is a short film), Sol (this is also a short film), Mindenki/Sing (this is an Academy award winner Hungarian short film), and etc.

I loved the score, the actors, the psychological/philosophical deep, and the production design in Interstellar, Arrival, 2001, and Inception, the humor in Dr. Strangelove, the child actors and production design in I Accidentally Wrote A Book, and I loved the Sol and Rou because I love dystopias lol

Eugene Mandelcorn - I have to agree with you about violence. I've never walked out on a movie because of a sex scene, but I have walked out of movies because of violence or because they got entirely too grotesque. One was a PG-13 film back in the '80s, and it only took me about ten minutes to walk out because it started with nothing but beheadings and brutal violence. I've said for the past 40-50 years that there is something wrong with a society when kids can be exposed to often horrible violence, but natural sexual acts are considered obscene. I'm not talking about porn or sexual violence. If that same film (I don't remember the name) had a mild to moderate explicit sex scene in it, it would have been rated R. We already have too much violence in our society, and I would love to see Hollywood begin to tone it down. That being said, I have written some fairly violent scenes in my books. However, I believe there are tasteful ways of presenting violence, just as there are tasteful ways of presenting sex.

Dear Ashley, thank you for asking. But foremost, what would our answers help you determine?

Hello Ashley Renee Smith for me it was this YouTube breakdown Top 100 Boss Fight 3D Montage (ft. ‪@dzasterpeace‬ ) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgiRK8_iKdg and Love, Death & Robots on Netflix, both of which reminded me how visual rhythm can shape storytelling.

I read a lot more this year than in past years, and one of the last books I finished was Unreasonable Hospitality. Currently reading Range. Both are fantastic books and are shaping new directions, but helping me drill down on directions I didn't think were still open to me.

There were a few things this year inspiring more of me, one was the daily journaling I committed to for 2025. There are always a few stories rising to the surface briefly each day as I applied pen to paper in my journals, so I captured the wisps as they arrived. I peruse the local library to see and read what the youth and children are absorbing to guide their future manifested life. Some are magical with more heroines than heroes which is nice to see. There are definitely potential gaps with some outdated genres misguiding young minds into confusion around what their future could hold. This is one area I am looking at seriously to fill in those gaps and welcome other creators to join me in this.

Another blessing in disguise was my tablet battery decided to die in June!! With no way to access my documents or social media network with a stolen phone locking me out! I did spend more time on You Tube with Michelle Chalfont's Podcast - The Adult Chair, Jefferson Fisher on Communication tips from a lawyer. I can say his podcasts refocus my day allowing for a greater depth in my writing and communication. Walking through the forests here on Vancouver Island BC Canada which hold such beauty it is easy to feel inspired by the life giving majesty of the giant old growth. To experience the essence of these trees one must walk or stand among them at sun set when they release their aerosols into the environment. And last before my tablet battery failed I understood the hype over the kindle app. I could have the app read stories to me while I was in my garden or cooking, and who here does not like to have story read to them? Something I discovered about this app was if highlighting a word the app will give the words origins, and many of those words did not mean of have the same usage we apply to them to day. Give it a try if you have the kindle app.

You all have a beautiful Day/Evening

I thought I would add a narrative feature that is Taiwan's entry for an Academy Award. It is called, "Left-Handed Girl," and it was the best film I saw at the Cannes Film Festival this year.

Ashley Renee Smith one of the standouts for me was ‘The Eternaut’ on Netflix, from Argentina. It’s a six episode short form series, based on Héctor Germán Oesterheld graphic novel.

I love it because it sustains the mystery and the tension of the story. The acting is awesome as well as the production design. I have loved these dystopian, apocalyptic stories probably since I watched films like ‘The Day of the Triffids’ and the Quatermass films, when I was a kid.

I remember "The Day of the Trigffids." This dystopian film still haunts me, especially when overgrown trees and bushes creep toward my house. Ah, the power of the movie.

Edward Yang's Yi Yi & Taipei Story. It's hard to find something original, new- refreshing nowadays, so in my attempt to turn back the time, i got hold of these two gems and they have influenced and inspired me ever since.

When it comes to writing & the psychological exploration of deeply flawed characters, you'll catch me betting my 2 kidneys on Takopi's Original Sin. Masterful in every aspect, but a short disclaimer- it's not an easy watch.

Go blind, but come with enough space & a free evening to fully grasp the inner turmoil and conflict you've just felt & probably continue to feel for at least a little while. It's a ride but one worth taking!

I love everything that Octavia Butler has written. However, Kindred and Parable of the Sower stand out as the most significant influences on The Way Makers, my YA historical fiction series. Before she left here, I wrote and asked her if I could write a film script for Kindred. She wrote back and said it was already contracted out. I still have that response tucked away in my files somewhere.

Ashley Renee Smith, for me it will be what is known as "Vertical media"!

I recently completed a Trailer for my film ,with the "aspect ratio" for demonstration!