Finally, finally we have finished filming on the Felicia Browne tea set project funded by my a-n professional development bursary!
Due to many technical difficulties with the very first scheduled shoots we’ve had to regroup and recoup over the intervening months to work through and plan what proved to be an extremely straightforward shoot in my kitchen.
I had always seen this film as a tight closely shot affair, but drawing out a visual narrative that played well alongside my poem has been harder than I expected. Word and image mustn’t fight or compete or chase each other’s tails and in a collaboration you need to find the way to understand each other’s vision and arrive somewhere in the middle (while doing justice to your material).
I’ve learnt a huge amount about that process (and my instincts for simplicity being borne out in the end). I had to make a video myself to work this out and to be able talk down the impulse to insert too much contextual information. The issue wth a historical subject is the instinct to explain – but this is an art film. The poem is the narrator and making sure this voice isn’t obscured by the visuals is vital to the success of our piece.
I’m now looking forward to the edit. This again will be made so much easier by all the hard work in our previous sessions.
I’m especially excited that some of my iPhone captures (which on two occasions reached the parts Simon’s camera couldn’t) will be used too! I’m thrilled to have become an active part on the capture side of this project.
