Gift – a blog about my a-n Professional Development Bursary

Close up shot of the 1930s tea caddy which will feature in the film – Gift.

Pace has surfaced as a major theme in my professional life. I will be talking and blogging about it some more in time (appropriately enough), but it is also key to this marvellous experience of professional development thanks to a-n.

I wrote in my last post about how much I enjoy working with Simon Haynes. He is calm and measured and we take it ‘slow’. Only for ‘slow’ I’m beginning to realise that it would be more accurate to say deep.

And this is what is so brilliant about the self-led professional bursary. The artist gets to design the project and chose who to collaborate with – one aspect of my submission was about the importance of working within a previously established professional relationship.

Simon and I are comfortable working together for many reasons but I’m coming to see that the underlying sympathy between us is that of pace.

We’ve met a further two times since the last post. Once to download and begin to navigate Simon’s professional editing software (so much more sophisticated than my basic self-taught experience with iMovie), and a second time to plan our next shoot.

The brief taste of editing with this software has brought my ideas on about what could be possible, and it also informed our planning for the new round of filming.

I quickly realised that we’d do well to break down my poem into verses and  mark out the visuals for each verse – and it is so much more more manageable in chunks. It also brought a surprise. A second narrative which I hadn’t quite identified before was lurking in the background waiting to be drawn out. I’m excited about this as it also brings in an element of ritual to the work which is important to my practice.

As it stands the poem narrates our principal story – but the visuals will now (we hope) both support it, and yet allow us to layer in a secondary thread.

Not ambitious for a 3 minute film! Haha!

Anyhow – suffice to say I am enjoying this project immensely, learning a huge amount about the work of creating a short film.  This is down to the benefits of the a-n bursary design, which allows the artist to determine the pace and structure of the work. I’ll probably say thank you a-n each time I write.

Sorry if I sounds repetitive, but worth saying that for an autistic artist this is golden.

A migraine hovered all day on our first shoot, and I’m currently recovering under my duvet, but our first day of filming was terrific!

I must confess that I love working with Simon Haynes, and our location proved perfect in terms of lighting. A large airy conservatory in West Oxford provided all the natural light you could possibly want – even on a relatively overcast day. Due to the kindness of Simon’s stepfather I quickly saw that he’d found the perfect studio for our shoot. It doesn’t have to cost money – first lesson learned.

Stepfather (Derek) has my unending gratitude for his patience and hospitality – a passionate art lover who did not mind one bit us moving all his furniture and art pieces around (including one colossal painting and an array of figurines). I seemed to spend the day being VERY careful.

My greatest challenge was the tea set though! How many times did I wrap and unwrap it, move it here and move it there, take cups out of the cabinet (which will feature in our film) and put them in again? I truly don’t know. But I can tell you that each time I told myself – be careful Sonia Boué don’t drop it!!

I can now vouch for the fact that when you’re dealing with a unique and fragile object of historical significance it makes you hyperconscious, and horribly aware of your responsibility to keep it safe.

But there was an upside to getting up close and personal with the tea set Felicia Browne bought for her sister Helen as a wedding present in 1932. I realised that for all my gazing at it lovingly each time I pass it (in this same cabinet) as I walk through my kitchen – I have not seen a bloody thing! How could I have missed the delicate leaf moulding on the spout, and the artichoke detail on the teapot lid!

I’ve been a sucker for the gorgeously detailed and colourful  blooms which are different on each cup and saucer, and I’m all about the adorable shape of teapot and cups both. These last two moulded details emerged under the light which Simon had insisted on – the natural light which is missing from my kitchen! And because I’ve been too damn scared to handle it for fear of breaking it I’ve missed what was in front of my nose.

These were not the only gems I learned about today. Watching over Simon’s shoulder and talking through each choice we made – as he lined up our shots and I helped adjust tripods – I began to grasp how much work goes in to making good footage. Each time we nailed a shot I found myself saying – let’s grab some more footage from this angle in case we need it. If this works for a tea cup how about the tea caddy!

The beauty of this bursary is that it’s enabling me to work with someone I know I can learn from in a hands on way. I probably wouldn’t be able to access this kind of learning on a course – the pace wouldn’t be right for me.  Simon takes it slow, we chat amiably and I relax into watching and waiting. I know Simon will ask my opinion and answer all my questions. He assumes nothing and gives everything.

At the end of the day we had some new ideas in the bag (he lets me be creative), and a good number of shots on his carefully prepared check list ticked off too.

Thank you again a-n. I can’t wait for Tuesday’s download session where we’ll see what we’ve got before we shoot again. We’ve a long way to go yet, but this was a great start.

I’m also happy to say that the tea set arrived safely home in one piece and is back in the cabinet. Okay so I’m a nervous wreck – but the film is going to be so worth it!