Thursday 10 February 2011

joyful shepherds

And another editing session 4-9 February. Despite the equipment continuously crashing the first couple of days and slowing up the editing process dramatically, it decided to behave itself thereafter, and much was achieved. Charles always complains he's under the cosh when hyperactive Libby arrives - no time allowed for contemplation, listening to wireless programmes or CDs, let alone R&R!
The film has developed in so many ways, the educational, intellectual and secular side of Patrick's work gaining ascendancy over the religious and militaristic (perhaps this is sub-conscious since both of us hate conflict and are atheists) so we had suggested changing the working title of From Coventry to Cochem to something broader. However John and Charlotte are adamant that this title should remain so top of the agenda was how to rework the beginning of the film using the footage from the promo we showed last year. Having decided what to do, the next problem is how to do it - we're now working in High Definition and although the promo was filmed in HD, it was edited in Standard Definition, so Charles is going to have to put together the entire sequence all over again. Libby's also got to add a suitable introduction for the mellifluously voiced, almost nostalgic tones of Jeremy Irons.
So, what did we achieve this time round? Well, amazingly enough Dame Edna including the very amusing Australian interlude, Southwell Minster, Patrick's sketchbooks, the Moore Memorial at Much Hadham and Commedia del Arte including some wonderful lively footage we took of Patrick before this film was even a twinkle. We also added up the running time from the sequences completed to date - a rather scary 77 minutes! I'm going to have to lose some of my darlings doubtless!
And we even managed a quick trip to the rather wonderful Harley Gallery (http://www.harleygallery.co.uk) near Worksop to see Nora Fok's amazing creations - the exhibition curated by Charles' friends Ken and Brochocka Baynes. The special opening was to celebrate the Year of the Rabbit - I'm one of them! We're supposed to be creative, hardworking and ambitious, with an eye for colour and line, and apparently this year promises hopes, positivity and fun! Good, good!
Some wonderful dramatic sunsets whilst at EKH (hence the happy shepherds) a couple of which bookend this blog. I'm off to London tomorrow to help son the younger move into his new house, then to Yorkshire next week to visit mea mater, back to Kent for more London removals before returning to Film Farm 21 February. It's all go!

Tuesday 1 February 2011

editing and Oundle

24 January and Libby was back at Film Farm ready for the next editing instalment. Finished off the Burleighfield Education segment but realised we needed more images of the place - have emailed Ray King to see if he can come up with some goodies.
25 January we did a short interlude about Patrick's autonomous panels based on the stories in Ovid's Metamorphoses and completed Education 2 which is about Patrick's time at Central - the ex students we interviewed were great, good lively debate which led irrevocably to the influence of Cecil Collins and thus to the stained glass he designed for Basingstoke.
26 January edited Basingstoke (despite the equipment having a really stroppy day and crashing every five seconds) - an absolutely beautiful section, Charles produced some wonderful photography (aided not a little by the angle of the sun shining through the silvery yellow colouring). Quite ethereal and spiritual and perfectly suited to Cecil Collins.
27 January Charles was dragged kicking and screaming out of bed long before his normal waking hour and we charged off to Oundle to do some more work on the chapel and school exterior. Stephen Forge the School Archivist took us in hand and found some wonderful old engravings of the school, a film of the Queen Mother at the opening dedication of the windows in 1956, and the piece de resistance - a film of the school and schoolboys dating back to 1913. Priceless stuff. Including footage of the OTC marching and presenting arms and then leaving on a train, happily waving - considering that about 1/3rd of all the old boys who joined the forces were killed in WW1, this is quite tear jerking stuff. The 2nd floor edit suites were set to work overtime and process the material overnight. Photo of the chapel seen through a screen of silver birch trees and of course Libby got sidelined by the first sign of spring, celandines (unfortunately not open since there wasn't sufficient sun to coax them open). 28 January - well we just had to re-edit the Oundle section with all our wonderful new material. Excellent and adds a new dimension to the film.
29 January - we found some software which shows breaking glass - but at some phenomenal cost - Charles investigated to see if he could find something similar but cheaper - he's not too happy with the chapter endings as they are. The day was otherwise spent in reviewing the work to date and calculating how many more days we can squeeze into our already packed agendas in order to finish the film by the end of March.
30 January at some god-forsaken hour (certainly before Charles had even surfaced) Libby waved au revoir to Film Farm, driving to Bewdley where she spent a couple of days making notes on an extensive Brangwyn collection (over 150 works which all need to be written up as formal reports ASAP!) Aaaargh!
SMARTIES - fiddlesticks, we didn't have time yet again for the smartie experiment.