The Big Preview!

After a weekend ministering to mea mater it was back to Film Farm on the 28th, interrupted by a train journey to London for the NADFAS Directory Meeting. Unfortunately the East Coast service was suspended on the return journey 30 March so I had to get a train to Kings Lynn, Charles had to drive 50 miles to collect me, and then the following day I had to take the train to Grantham to collect my car and drive back to Film Farm. Huge expense and waste of time all round.
Thursday and Friday reviewing the DVD plus cooking on my part and then Saturday the grand preview with Patrick himself, John and Charlotte, some media friends of theirs and Charles' expert, Hugh Newsam. Although they thought it could be shortened the response was enthusiastic which was a huge relief after all the agonies we've been through. So a few minor changes and we are there - hopefully!
Photos of us all in the garden post preview.

progress - what progress?

Arrived at Film Farm again 10 March and after a hasty lunch we raced upstairs to the edit suite on the third floor to engage in putting together the film again. Before nightfall we finished Stoke St Mary and Danny Lane flame throwing. The following day completed Taunton and the Pynsent Memorial, and Saturday finished Cochem. Sunday we did the twiddly end bits and then Monday and Tuesday checked through all the chapters and interludes ensuring that the house style was consistent, that the film was balanced and that the story threads wove through successfully. Lucky we got this much done actually because the machinery had massive technical tantrums! The film is quite long, about 90 minutes but it's all excellent stuff and most people feel cheated if they don't get their money's worth on a DVD.
Wednesday we gave ourselves a break, albeit a working break, and travelled to Bradford to see the Fay Godwin exhibition at the Media Centre or whatever it calls itself these days. Excellent, seeing the photographs in the flesh was so much more exciting than looking at them in books. They really came to life and the detail was amazing. Fay is the subject of our next project! We also saw a 3D film about mending one of the USA shuttles which was quite amazing, I thought I might feel sea sick and cheat, but got quite hooked on it (photo of Charles looking extra handsome in his 3D goggles!)
Thursday drove back to Kent to prepare for a weekend invasion and much cooking!

Huffing and Puffing and much driving

As promised Monday 21st saw Libby drive north again to Film Farm and the first afternoon we reviewed Charles' new opening sequence, changed the titles and added a trumpet fanfare recorded during the service at Cochem all those years ago.

As well as changing the Promo to High Definition Charles had also been busy recording Chopin and Paganini from old records (no copyright involved), so on Tuesday we added some suitably whizzy Paganini to the Commedia del Arte section and Chopin to the sketchbooks. We recorded Charles donning his best Jeremy Irons honeyed voice and his hesitant Piper impression (move over Rory Bremner). And we made a start on the Anstey section. Plus much charging of batteries and checking of bags.

Wednesday saw the little Alfa once again being loaded to the gunnels with the usual suspects just about leaving room for long legged Charles and his diminutive sidekick to squeeze in, and we were off to Kington and the Wye Valley.

Thursday to see David Kirby who was the technical designer for Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral and prior to that assisted Patrick with the stained glass at St Mary's, Leyland. David is one of the most versatile people I've ever met - he originally trained as a stained glass artist, his first job was for Patrick which was an education in itself, then he retrained as a furniture designer, and became a professional photographer. In his spare time he races and restores vintage motor bikes (some highly techy impressive machinery in his workshop) and makes the most wonderful photographic prints (sort of reminiscent of Piper). And he and Celia live in a fabulous Huf Haus, the best designed modern house I've ever come across (see photo).
Anyway the main purpose of the visit was to interview David about his work with Patrick which was successfully accomplished despite being distracted by the beautiful surroundings.

Having left David we had a mooch round the delightful town of Kington which boasts a multiplicity of non-High Street shops including one specialising in cigarette cards (Charles' latest passion) and a special frame for his collection of Players hens was purchased.

Thence a drive along the Welsh borders and up to Preston for the night. And what an uplifting drive it was, beautiful countryside, beautiful weather (for a change), fabulous old half timbered houses in all shapes and sizes, and no motorways! Bliss. Really raised our spirits. Our 2nd brush with 21st century architecture came our way in Bishops Castle where a sign to The Wintles caught Charles' eye - very unusual eco-friendly housing with good brickwork details, extra thick walls, rounded corners to windows, lime wash on the exterior painted in jolly Mediterranean colours, lots of glass and wood - very interesting (http://livingvillages.com/). However a trawl on the inter-web suggests that all is not rosy in the Wintles and that the developers have gone bust.

Friday a short drive to Leyland to film the aforementioned church. Much larger than expected, in the round, and all the exterior walls of dalles de verre, purely abstract (detail in photo). Was interested to discover that the fathers are all Benedictine monks from Ampleforth which is how Patrick gained the commission.

Filling the car with diesel the man behind was shouting and gesticulating - in typically guilty fashion Libby imagined it was abuse but the chap was just yelling 'Can you hurry up before Colonel Gaddafi makes another speech?'!

Found some excellent fish and chips for Charles' lunch (even Libby succumbed to 2 little chips and a bite of fish) so he was a happy bunny, although it has to be said that by the time Film Farm hove into sight once more both bodies were distinctly bushed.

And so Saturday the Kirby/Leyland rushes were fed into the system. Meanwhile we added the Irons introduction and images. Irons has the magnetism to carry the audience but if we only have a sound recording this whole intro is just too long and heavily weighted towards religion which I personally think will put a lot of people off. It might also mean scrapping our original intro with interviewees spouting quick descriptions of Patrick, rather like bullet points - very fast paced, visual and aimed to immediately engage the audience. We shall see. We also added the Piper voice-over and succeeded in finishing the Anstey section and an interlude with Patrick painting in his sketchbooks, tea bags at the ready.

Sunday: With the Kirby interview and Leyland film fresh in our minds it seemed best to complete the Liverpool section but as with all things it took longer than anticipated so Libby's departure for Kent was delayed until Monday.

And so a new week dawned, Libby was faced with the prospect of another long drive (over 900 miles this week) and Charles with the prospect of VAT and tax returns. Ugh, we both need a good long relaxing holiday - or at the very least a non-working weekend!

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!

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.

... and we're off

A mere 2 days into the New Year and Charles and Libby are back to work again editing the Reyntiens film. We started on Coventry but got bogged down because Libby is more word based and Charles more visual based and he wanted some beautiful film where the protagonists weren't saying anything constructive, whereas I wanted some good words where the protagonists were standing in the wrong place! Much discussion over dinner after which we compromised and understood each other's approach!
The following day we finished Coventry amicably, but decided we required Smarties (you've no idea how difficult these are to purchase these days, and they don't even appear to sell them in the traditional round tube. Appalling, what is the world coming to?!) Why did we need Smarties? Wait until the next episode when we might have time to experiment!
We edited an interlude wherein Patrick paints a stained glass panel and, aware of his predilection for painting to the accompaniment of banjo music, Charles moved into garage band and composed a jolly piece there and then! What a hero!
Thence to the Liverpool sequence, but decided to leave this until we've interviewed David Kirby. To which end we phoned him and have booked for February 24th, and have also gained permission to film St Mary's, Leyland on the 25th - so excellent news.
Then decided that we needed a recognisable way of ending each chapter (the important stained glass windows) and played around with images of glass breaking until we got what we wanted. Added some interesting sounds of wind playing in wires, quite eerie.
More amusing interludes, plus serious chapters on Sanderson window and Education and before you can say Jack Robinson, it was Sunday and Libby had to return to Kent.

good news

Well, we're back just before the New Year after all! Sorry about that, I'm sure you all deserved a break! Anyway, the reason is this:
I had wanted to interview David Kirby for the film since he was tremendously important in helping construct the Lantern Tower at Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, but none of my contacts had any snail mail, email or telephone number for the gentleman in question. So imagine my delight when just before Christmas John Reyntiens sent me David's email address. We were soon in telephone contact. Not only does he sound very enthusiastic, but he's also emailed a whole slew of archival photographs detailing Liverpool work in progress at the Loudwater studio - AND he told us that Patrick's design and use of dalles-de-verre for St Mary's, Leyland (which David also helped construct) was pivotal in deciding whether to undertake the Liverpool commission. We didn't even know about the Leyland project, so this is all a huge boost.
The film would not be complete without an interview with David, so despite the fact that he lives in Herefordshire and every trip eats into our miniscule profit margin, I think we're going to have to take some time off from editing! 'Go the extra mile' should be our motto!
Happy New Year to you all. :-)