A Filmmaker's Guide to: Punk

In this chapter of ‘the filmmaker’s guide’ we’re actually going to be learning about literature and film together. I understand that many of you are sitting in university during difficult times and finding it increasingly hard to study and I understand that many of you who are not at university or not planning on it are possibly stuck of what to do, need a break or even need to catch up on learning film before you get to the next level. This guide will be brief but will also contain: new vocabulary, concepts and theories, films to watch and we will be exploring something taboo until now in the ‘filmmaker’s guide’ - academia (abyss opens). Each article will explore a different concept of film, philosophy, literature or bibliography/filmography etc. in order to give you something new to learn each time we see each other. You can use some of the words amongst family and friends to sound clever or you can get back to me (email in bio) and tell me how you’re doing. So, strap in and prepare for the filmmaker’s guide to film studies because it is going to be one wild ride.

Punk

What is it?

Normally centred around left-winged politics, 'punk' as a genre focuses on beating, overcoming and holding revolution against a corrupt and dystopian-styled authoritarian government.

In literature, punk has normally been split up into different subdivisions mostly concerning the realm of Sci-Fi and/or Fantasy genres. These include but are probably not limited to the following:

1. Atompunk - Space Age related Sci-Fi [for example: 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke]
2. Cyberpunk - Enhancement of lifestyle due to some sort of digital component [for example: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline]
3. Retropunk - A recent historical setting with components of exaggerated digital equipment and/or fantasy qualities [for example: Captain America]
4. Steampunk - Sci-Fi influenced by various industrial revolutions over the course of history [for example: Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne]
5. Clockpunk - Based in mechanical, pre-modern designs, the aspects of this world work in cogs and reels much like an old clock. [for example: the "Cogheart" series by Peter Bunzl]
6. Biopunk - sometimes also known as 'monster punk' it involves the changing in a biological make-up in order to create a monster, either animal or human, playing into the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde archetype. [For example: The Incredible Hulk]
7. Post-Cyberpunk - a mixture between apocalyptic literature and the literature of the cyberpunk movement, it focuses on the decay of civilisation due to technological advances. It was mainly conceived as an idea by critics once they realised that we had probably moved past the cyberpunk age. [for example: Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan]

Other books within various punk movements include the following [but are definitely not limited to them]:

1. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Phillip K. Dick
2. War of the Worlds by H.G Wells
3. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
4. The Man in the High Castle by Phillip K. Dick
5. Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
6. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

What about in film?

At the moment, I mean in the last twenty years, film has been pretty obsessed with the punk genre. Everything from adapting works of literature for the screen, to comics and manga to screen and even original works which are definitely worth a watch - well, sometimes. All of which contain either one or various aspects of different subdivisions of what we know as 'punk'. They are normally set against either a dystopian or digital backdrop and have an audience of everyone who wants to see the government get beaten up a few times throughout the next couple of hours.

Let's have a look at some of them that have come out in our own recent times since the start of our beloved century:

1. Artemis Fowl
2. The New Mutants
3. The Book of Eli
4. Inception
5. Never Let Me Go
6. Battle: Los Angeles
7. I Am Number Four
8. Real Steel
9. Source Code
10. Super Eight
11. X-Men - Days of Future Past
12. X-Men - First Class
13. Transformers
14. Thor: Ragnarok
15. Cloud Atlas
16. Hunger Games
17. Total Recall
18. Ender's Game
19. Her
20. Man of Steel
21. Oblivion
22. The Wolverine
23. World War Z
24. Big Hero Six
25. Edge of Tomorrow
26. Guardians of the Galaxy
27. Maze Runner
28. Predestination
29. Ex Machina
30. Jupiter Ascending
31. Divergent
32. Star Wars: Rogue One
33. X-Men - Apocalypse
34. Blade Runner 2049
35. Ghosts in the Shell
36. The First Purge
37. Mortal Engines
38. Alita: Battle Angel
39. Brightburn
40. Gemini Man

That's a lot of punk movies. You just have to determine now which 'punk' subdivision you think that each of them fall into and why. Some are easier than others, for example: "Thor: Ragnorok" has the aesthetic of punk to to put it definitively into a subdivision is much harder than you think. However, there may be some that fit more than one subdivision and that is perfectly alright as well.

Coming soon to a punk subdivision near you... Neuropunk

Further Reading:

• Lavigne, C (2012). Cyberpunk Women Feminism &: A Critical Study. USA: McFarland and Company.
• Quiroga, R (2020). NeuroScience Fiction: From "2001: A Space Odyssey" to "Inception," How Neuroscience Is Transforming Sci-Fi into Reality―While Challenging Our Beliefs About the Mind, Machines, and What Makes us Human. USA: Benbella Books Publishing House.
• Unno, H (2018). The Art of Fantasy, Sci-fi and Steampunk. USA: PIE Books Publishing House