I’m Alex Spriggs, a 23-year-old, Scottish screenwriter currently living in Cardiff.
I strive to see everything that has a cinematic release and believe that cinema as an art form is something you can learn from, good or bad.
My main inspirations for my personal writing styles are Harmony Korine, Gaspar Noé and Lars von Trier. I like to focus on ‘the bowels of society’ and try to tell stories people are afraid to tell or are scared to acknowledge happen. I think within cinema there is nothing more offensive than being horrifically inoffensive. I want to polarise people and make them feel something. I want to make films some people will love but some people will hate. I want to prompt strong reactions, because that is what art should do.
My scripts tend to focus on outsiders and the forgotten people of society, often referencing the coming-of-age genre, the difficulties of mental health and the effects of violence. I’ve written several shorts, a radio-play and theatre piece but most notably a handful of feature length scripts and am predominantly targeting the film industry for my work.
I have always focused on screenwriting, therefore never considered becoming a director until my last year as an undergraduate in university. My lecturer encouraged me, stating ‘you have such a powerful, specific vision, that I think you’ll have to direct your stories yourself to tell them faithfully. Following his advice, it started my inner motivation and encouraged my own worth. I consequently assembled a team of like-minded individuals who could faithfully adapt my vision.
Losing Game
Stuck in a violent and sexual relationship, a young woman attempts to leave, getting into an aggressive confrontation, but is drawn back in again through sex. She has a vision of murdering her boyfriend but fears the consequences.
The short follows a young, depressed lady stuck in an abusive, loveless relationship. She struggles with motivation every day, staying in bed, sleeping and popping pills. The story is particularly relevant now with prescriptions for SSRI’s growing year-on-year and suicide being one of the largest causes of death for young people in the UK. It’s also relevant as many depressed people become dependent on prescription medications as a crux, or even begin abusing them to replicate normality. It’s also worth noting that Xanax (alprazolam) is not available for prescription within the UK but its use and consequently abuse has grown in recent years and its popularity well documented.
My objective with this short is to show the fragility of life and damaging effects mental health can have on people, demotivating them and draining sufferers of life. The young lead in my script feels helpless, numbing the pain temporarily with ‘medication’ but draining her even more so, sleeping throughout the day and never leaving her bed. She feels helpless and her only solace is a loveless relationship, filled with intense sex that lacks emotion. She is abused by him and dragged down further by his behaviour and has fantasies of killing him to escape, but fears the consequences and instead self-medicates to forget.
My script is important now as it deals with the day-to-day issues of youth culture and the helplessness of depression, how more than anything sufferers are their own worst enemy, unknowingly damaging themselves. I intend on approaching festivals with this short and ideally gaining interest for the feature I have written and ideally being able to sell that following the success of this short.