You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘lucy brown’ tag.
Almost 8 weeks have slipped by since I left Wooda. It was pretty hard to leave, having established an incredibly productive working pattern & made such great friends with the farm & all who dance in it. Not to mention the beautiful landscape that one could wander off into at a moment’s notice, way beyond the chaos of the studio.
My time at Wooda was unreservedly positive. Even falling down the studio steps had its fun moments. I achieved what I had promised to myself & Wooda, that being the editing of my debut feature film, Follow The Master. But I took much more away with me ‘just’ that.
Most valuably I have drawn from the experience a renewed sense of confidence in how I go about my film making & indeed my day to day life, which can be summarised as just get on & do it. There’s a lot of talking & speculation & cowardliness around film production & it has got to stop. Wooda gave me a generous slice of time & space to get on & simply do. This was a rare privilege & I consider myself very lucky to have been selected for the residency.
Saturday Night at the Movies
The final weekend was spent preparing for a private screening of the ’96% completed’ film to family, crew, friends & co. Tony Hill turned up with some pals which was a great surprise & pleasure.
Max managed to get an article about it in the local parish magazine, The St Genny’s Gazette. I was particularly delighted that it appeared on page 3, right in the spot where one might ordinarily expect to see St Genny’s Gazongas.
The screening took place in The Barn at Wooda. As dusk fell a mighty wind & a freezing fog whipped up (no, really, it did – I assumed it was Grandpa Eric). Gary & Max lit braziers which burnt furiously & crazily, setting the scene a la Jarman’s The Last of England.
Despite the little technical ghosts in the machine that somehow secretly reorganised a section of the film before the presentation (to my amusement & Nick’s abject horror) the screening was a singular success.
The music to my ears, seemingly sung by many, was that the film was uniquely bizarre & yet open-hearted & accessible & that it could even be a bit longer. Nick & I had erred on the side of ‘not boring people’ & had cut the film dead at around 65′. So this was good news. We could hang out a bit.
Gary & Max had prepared the most amazing spread of food for all assembled which was a beautiful & tasty way to round things off. Drink flowed. Lucy danced. I tipsily kissed Cal & Morgan good night. Thank you, Wooda. Can we do it all over again please?
Iggy Pop
It’s Saturday – the day of Saturn. This has always been my favourite day of the week. The name relates to saturnalia, an occasion of wild revelry & general merrymaking & in fact was the Roman predecessor of Christmas. As a teen I used to kick off my Saturdays with the Iggy Pop song Some Weird Sin: Things get too straight / I can’t bear it / I feel stuck / Stuck on a pin. But now that I listen to it again, it has a duelling guitar riff which I find a bit … uncomfortable. Bowie’s fault I expect. Excellent cowbell action though.
As anyone sensible knows, Saturday night is party night! What’s on the agenda here at Wooda? A shank of spit-roast Quorn drizzled with Gary’s zingy Cointreau marmalade, followed by line-dancing with tonight’s special guests, Cal the Cob, Morgan the mule & Wewak the sheep. Then compulsory tears before drunken Irishman time.
(Max told me an amazing story yesterday of how Wewak survived a fall from the 40 foot high cliff that the farmhouse backs onto. The plucky lassie was found wedged between the cliff face & the building, immobile, flat on her back, legs in the air, though apparently unscathed).
Tip Top Tappers
I was talking of Irish, of dancing, of drunks, so I was. I’ve promised Deirdre Nelson that I’ll learn to tap dance while I’m down here. You see my mum Ruth gave me a Teach Yourself Tap DVD, with taps included. Plus I am learning how to play the piano in a less free-form way, by following Micheal Aaron’s Adult Piano Course (thanks Lucy B). We’ll have to see if there’s any time left to edit the feature.
I set about this post with a view to highlighting the importance of chance connections in my life / work & here’s a case in point. I was just deviating into how my next favourite day is Thursday, thanks entirely to a happy fluke of TV scheduling back in the ’70′s that placed Top of the Pops & The Bionic Man in quick succession (albeit on different channels).
We Can Rebuild Him
As I typed the word Bionic, a sound effect from that very same show pops up on a mix CD that I received from Nick this morning. It was a strange moment, but I guess that’s what marks Nick out as a truly great, reassuringly predictable friend. The CD’s are brilliant (thanks Nick & Kes) & they bring much welcome relief. For some reason I had only packed whimsical, folksy stuff & when all’s said & done, loud guitars keep you awake.
Pete Townsend is an alarm clock: discuss.
Wound Up
Connections, yes. I received an email from my aunt Gill, who has been involved in the development of Follow The Master from the outset, generously providing me with bits & bobs of memorabilia relating to Grandpa Eric (including the bowler hat & other garments) & more importantly, encouraging me to go ahead & make the film. Now here’s an interesting thing she wrote:
‘It’s really strange that you should be in Crackington Haven because we went there with Eric & sat on a bench above the beach where he told us about holidays he had there. I think he went there with his parents & then later on with a girlfriend (pre Grandma Joan). I will check the tapes to see if he refers to it! ‘ (Gill recorded several audio tapes with Eric before his death).
Crackington Haven
‘One thing that you might like to include (perhaps as a voiceover?) is something about his enjoyment of list making. I have lists of: all the dogs he ever had (names & dates); plane journeys made (airline names & dates); all the cars he owned (makes & dates).’
I responded:
‘The info about Crackington Haven is lovely … in fact I went for a walk with Nick up to the cliff that towers over the bay & I did notice a bench … it’s in the perfect place for when your legs are just starting to build up lactic acid. It is not an exaggeration to say that I felt Eric’s presence in that moment & place, without knowing of his connection to Crackington Haven. So it all fits perfectly, which is just so.’
Johnny Morris
‘It seems as if Eric will appear in the film in oblique ways, perhaps as voice overs for various animals (Johnny Morris style), as ‘visions’ in Tippy’s dreamtime, possibly through letters he sent to me, or through some of the items you kindly sent. This doesn’t mean he’s ‘sidelined’. In fact what I realised looking back at the footage is that basically I sort of ‘am’ him in many ways, living proof, up there on the screen.’
‘Your idea / notion about the lists is genius. It sums him up, quite literally. I was trying to find a way of giving the audience a sense of his (let’s face it, tedious) attention to detail without actually having to put them through a real-time 90 minute car journey from Hassocks to Maidstone – which I have on video tape if you’re interested.’ (That’ll be the art-house version – Ed.)
‘When I was looking through that particular footage with Nick I eventually had to leave the studio because it became too claustrophobic. Eric never would let me open the rear windows of the dog-filled car to let air in – not even on a birthday trip to The Bluebell Railway.’
Line Dancing Sheep by Gillian Hulse
Further connections are unearthed as I write. It turns out Johnny Morris was Vice President of The Bluebell Railway – for 30 years. He was also instrumental in establishing children’s storytelling on television through the show Playbox, which was a forerunner of Jackanory, episodes of which Gill was later commissioned to create illustrations for.
Late one night many many years ago a pal of mine Simon Ounsworth & I decided to write fan letters to minor British celebrities called John. I can’t remember why . ‘Finely honed situationist instincts’ sounds good but I suspect we were probably just bored. I wrote to John Noakes from Blue Peter & Simon wrote to Johnny Morris. I never heard a peep, but Simon got sent information about a fund raising campaign for Bristol Zoo.
Groom aka DJ Neil St John
To our amazement we were sent a signed photo of Simon along with his dog Goldie. I would like to add that I no longer write to Blue Peter presenters or minor British celebrities called John.
Watch Out
Although that’s not strictly accurate. I did later send a postcard to a band from Leeds called The Three Johns when it looked like I might be heading that way for university: ‘Dear Johns. I have applied to study art at Leeds. I shall hide under your bed & grab your ankles when you get up in the morning. Watch out. Matt.’
I rather like the idea that The Three Johns might all share a single bed. And the little one said … rock ‘n’ roll ‘n’ over ‘n’ out.
Wooda
Greetings from Wooda, an organic farm set on a steep, south-facing valley two miles from the sea at Crackington Haven in Cornwall, owned & run by Gary Whitbread & Max Burrows. I’m here for six weeks on an artist’s residency, supported by the Wooda Arts Award which is offered annually to original and committed artists working in any medium. By way of an introduction to what I’m planning on achieving over the coming weeks, here’s a few extracts from my original application for the award.
My films are characterised by surreal humour, non-verbal/visual storytelling, happenstance & chance as triggers for creativity in narrative, richly woven soundtracks, visceral editing, a love of & dedication to the art of Super 8.
I have two major film projects on the go. The first is a low-medium budget fiction feature film project combining live action & animation, Dummy Jim, about a profoundly deaf man who cycled from Scotland to the Arctic Circle in 1951.
The second is another long-form film which, like Dummy Jim, will playfully combine live action with a montage of experimental elements & techniques. It is also a journey film, this time documenting a walk along the 100 mile long South Downs Way, which I completed along with my girlfriend Lucy Brown & dog Tippy in May 2008. Read the rest of this entry »
