Let's Do This: Cinematic Fiction | Episode 30

Welcome to Let’s Do This —
the weekly Matterhorn podcast as digestible 5 minute episodes with 3 ideas for starting points in your own work. Please feel free to share links to your own work in the comments!

This week’s full podcast episode:

The Cinematic in Fictions | Episode 29

A transcript of this episode is available on the web version.

Let’s Do This: Cinematic Fiction

1. Does the fiction you are writing overlap with a cinematic genre? In what ways could you use that genre to greater effect in your fiction? Perhaps watch a film or two for inspiration.

2. Could cinematic history or iconic films of a particular era enhance your fiction? Perhaps from a chronotopic¹ and historical perspective or as more artistic and even aesthetic allusion? Do certain films push for social justice in a way that your fiction does?

3. How do local filmmakers create a dialogue of the place they inhabit? I spoke a little about Hong Kong cinema; you might be more aware of New York or Paris filmmakers, for example. Where does your story take place and what are the films set there? How do they change denizens’ experiences in the spaces depicted on screen?

Please feel free to share links to your own work (including other forms of fiction - songs, visual art, film…) or copy and paste short sections to share with our readers!

1. I’m referencing Bakhtin’s Chronotope in The Dialogic Imagination. I also talk about this concept in a post from last year:

The Phone Call (everyday performances)