I arrived home the other day to find a book by the door near the post... I recognised it INSTANTLY and grabbed it... my absolutely favourite book as a child! A book of poems, with beautiful pictures and illustrations... I had always wondered where it had gone! I had a quick flick through it and put it on my shelf for safe keeping.

Then a few days later, I was on skype, chatting to a friend, and I said the line: "If I put my mind to it, i'm sure I could do it, you can never tell til you try!". It reeled off my tongue like a song lyric, and I caught myself... and questioned where it came from and why the heck I had said it.

Then I remembered, the book sitting on my shelf had that poem! And I used to read it... something about a man looking in his ear with his eye... or something strange like that! But if I had remembered that line after all these years, what else had I remembered?

            

I started to look through it, and spotted instantly... the entire style of the book was what I had been striving for for years!

Literally, images of kids on beaches and at pet shops, boys in wellies and rain coats, and sad, thoughtful looking mums. Poems about happy things and cats, and illustrations that I know I would pick out today as exactly the feeling I'd strive to give across.

I got a second opinion and sent a few of the images to Jack, who agreed that it was "ridiculously Sorchary".

This really reminds me of what I was going for with turning the tides!

I'm absolutely fascinated by what else I have taken from this book. I know for a fact I feel sad whenever I see a robin in the snow because of this poem... and have even told people about it! Although I couldn't remember the exact poem, just the words at the end "and put his head under his wing, poor thing". I'll forever feel sorry for robins!

 

So, influences for films can come from everywhere. Sometimes influences we are very aware of, such as films we have recently watched or books we might have read, or people we know... however sometimes images, styles and ideas might come into our head, leaving us completely unaware we might have seen it before, and its just sat there... waiting for the right time. Or even shaping our entire style and genre...

I think this was a great book to have been influenced by... and was in my house since 1978! 10 Years before I was born. :-)

 

This is very much so what I had in mind for costumes in "Remember When". Even the boy next to his bed with his teddy bear! And the comfy looking hat, boots and coat on the left.

 

Another "Turning The Tides" character AND costume similarity...

 

Did this influence "Remember When"? Just maybe!!!