About The following is an exerpt from Ariel: Diary of a Short Film - Episode 1 in which John Hidalgo, the writer, producer and director, discusses how the idea for Ariel began. The idea for Ariel had been with me for about three years. When it came to me I had already written, produced and directed a couple of student projects for Austin Community College’s radio, television and film program. I knew that at some point in the near future I would produce it. Ariel came from a combination of things. A long time ago I had gone through rape crisis intervention training through the Texas Association Against Sexual Assault to supplement assault prevention classes I was teaching. I had been studying martial arts in the Bujinkan Dojo system for quite some time. My motivation for teaching assault prevention classes was partially because I wanted to bring more students into our class but also because I had a number of friends and family members that had been assaulted and felt pretty strongly about the subject. There were other inspirations for Ariel. Without giving too much away there were a number of lessons and concepts in the Bujinkan martial arts that I always wanted to see on film. I should note here that the martial arts that makeup the Bujjinkan system come from traditional Japanese martial schools. The movement while being very utilitarian is not particularly flashy and difficult to portray in film. I don’t recall exactly when I first had the idea for Ariel but once I did it was with me almost everyday. Often, as I was on a long drive or laying down for bed, I would play the movie in my head, refining it and working out all the plot points until, in September of this year, it was ready to be written and written it was. It seemed flowed onto the page. While not perfect, I felt really, really good about it. I have since shown it to some people and received good feedback. I’ve got some rewriting to do but I feel the core of it is very solid. © 2014 John Hidalgo, Rōnin Creative Media. All rights reserved. For site information please contact the webmaster.