Gift is my a-n Professional Development Bursary award project – and we just left the starting block! My introduction to filming and editing on professional software has begun.
A first meeting with Simon Haynes – my filmmaker – involved a tea set (his first contact with the historic object which will be the focus of our short film), a printout of my poem (which will form the voiceover for the film), and a great deal of enthusiastic arm gesturing. I may have nodded a lot. Simon too.
Hurrah!
We have a plan. Simon has identified a perfect location for filming which will incur no extra costs to our budget and affords natural lighting. He’s keen for the detailed hand painted floral pattern of the tea set to be picked out in natural light under his macro lens.
We now also have a schedule. All being well we will begin filming on the 6th May. I’ve quickly learned that it’s important to download and back-up footage immediately (so we’ve factored this time into our first day). We’ll follow up with an editing session on the 11th of May. Simon’s practice is to edit as quickly as possible after the shoot. I’m looking forward to experiencing at first hand why this is beneficial – but striking while the iron is hot (as he puts it) makes sense to me.
Importantly, my short poem (polished lovingly with news skills honed on my last ACE funded project) narrates the story of the tea set and will form the backbone of our film. I’m excited by the logical simplicity of this arrangement. All that hard work on the poem eases our work at this stage – our structure is in place from the off.
So we looked at each short verse and ideas for visuals flowed. I have to source lose tea (easy) and a period tea caddy (the kind of research I love best!). We’re going to experiment with sound effects too!
This is wonderful – I’m in my comfort zone but I’m learning new skills. I am so very excited! My huge thanks again to a-n for allowing me this opportunity to bring Gift to life.
