An Introductory Screed

Welcome to the birth of my blog. Well, technically, I had set this URL and everything up a while ago, but this is the real birth of it, because I’m actually doing something with it, you see.

First things first, an introduction. My name is Joseph Sullivan, I’m a writer and filmmaker from Melbourne, Australia. This is my blog about my work and all that I do, to develop it, to talk about it, to share it with you lot, my readers…as of right now writing this, I’m not sure if any of you are out there, I’m basically just howling into the void right now. It’s an exercise.

As for what my work is, I’ll start with the writing. While I like to think I can branch out into all sorts, I focus primarily on speculative fiction with mostly a focus on fantasy. I’ve always had an interest in this stuff, and these days it mostly comes from my love of the old pulp fiction, in particular I’m a fan of the work of H. P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard and Clark Ashton Smith, regardless of how difficult Smith’s prose is to read sometimes (the man had a gift and used it well, but it can be hard to follow!). While due to the passage of time and the advancement of the speculative fiction genre past old-school sword-and-sorcery, some of it can seem a bit antiquated (I prefer the term “vintage”), it’s really fertile ground for writers like me, and others I’m sure, to update the formulas into the current era, which as of writing this is 2022.

Filmmaking is another thing entirely…if my writing is fantastical, my films are a different story. I first got seriously into it when I watched John Carpenter’s They Live as part of my high school class. Pretty well-done movie all around, in my opinion, but it was very transparent in how it was made: unique concept, standard character arcs, plot progression, it got me thinking that I could make something like that. Then I decided to make something like that!

Although the similarities with They Live end there, I’m afraid, at least for the most part. While I’ve always loved the more artistic and experimental side of cinema, my three favourite directors unashamedly being Stanley Kubrick, David Lynch and Werner Herzog, I’ve gone for a far more mundane approach. My main influence would be Joe Swanberg, the mumblecore director who makes loads of films for cheap. I feel like his work touches upon something different, something real that a lot of other filmmakers don’t, or can’t, or are afraid to capture, especially amongst big studio films. If you haven’t seen any of his movies, some of them, like Marriage Material, are free to watch online. I highly recommend them.

So, yeah! That’s what I do here. Occasionally, I might post about other things that interest me, but for the most part, if you follow this blog, you’ll get to keep up with my work!

Whether that's a blessing or a curse, up to you...