010112
Filmed dawn on New Years Day. Symbolically this was important for me - to give me a fixed starting point for filming. However, I envisage this footage to be used about 10 minutes into the film - after some initial footage of Cowslip Sunday and it's festivities. The idea being that the film will then cut back to deep Winter - allowing me to document the passing of time and the change in the landscape in and around Lambley between January and May (Winter and Spring) leading up to Cowslip Sunday on May 6th, when the film will end with the early part of that day
At the same time I want to start filming rehearsals and preparations for the Cowslip Sunday Spring pantomime (as well as the creation of my own 'Poetry Seen' installation along a secluded woodland path) to suggest that these preparations for Spring are both parts of the same process.
I want then to use an audio soundtrack of some of the social history of Cowslip Sunday - for example to explore it's origin as a spontaneous folk festival and any social/political aspect of this.
The quality of the light was going to be important for these early 'landscape' shots - where seemingly very little is happening (although the plan is to then use close-up 'detail' shots - to show life enduring through Winter). It turned out to be a very dull and overcast morning and this dictated that this early footage should be almost monochrome - with colour gradually being introduced into the film over time (reflecting the process that occurs in the landscape itself).
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Shot more footage early afternoon but discovered much of it was out of focus. The limitations of my technical know-how mean that I need to set the focus of the camera in landscape photographing mode before switching to film mode and then shooting footage. I've found focussing using the view window a little unreliable but achieve better results using the lens.
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I've had in my mind a loose structure of how the film might work. This evening I've finally started to outline the film structure more precisely - see 'Structure outline'.
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020112
Read a review of 'A Bigger Message: Conversations with David Hockney - by Martin Gayford'. [Guardian Review 31/12/11 - Margaret Drabble]
'Trees are "like human figures in the landscape, vegetable giants, some elegant, some heroic, some sinister … but they are also remarkable feats of natural engineering, capable of holding up a tonne of leaves in summer against the forces of gravity and wind" [David Hockney]. This observation draws Hockney on to speak of the spatial thrill of trees and their capturing of light - a winter tree helps you to sense space, a summer tree is a container of light - and also to the theme of the changing of seasons and the changing light of every day.'
'… the landscape is "huge natural theatre that is being lit by the sun and the weather in an infinity of varying ways". [Martin Gayford]
A landscape described as 'modest, unspectacular, unfrequented…'
Make a note of listening again to Andrew Marr interview with Hockney [BBC Radio 4 iPlayer]
In sharp contrast to yesterday, today is a brilliantly bright winter's day. That kind of light - and its effect on the landscape - is certainly something I want to capture, but for now I'm looking at getting footage that is a little grey and gloomy - to allow me to develop this 'from winter darkness to spring light' motif. It's not a very sophisticated approach but the film will be relatively short (60 minutes maximum) and so I'm looking at ways of creating some kind of visual narrative flow and light seems one way of doing that.
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Thinking about the Hockney work above, trees are obviously an important part of the rural landscape around Lambley - and will inevitably feature in the film. Out this afternoon it occurred to me how tricky it would be to capture them on film with any real depth - because they are of course static and that tends not to film that well (that''s where the light becomes more important - helping to create more visual interest).
Hockney has a few advantages in his own representation of trees: his reputation probably doesn't do him any harm (in terms of persuading people to look closely at the work). His enormous skill as an artist must be a big help. And, from what I understand, the sheer scale of some of the paintings almost demands attention. Lacking all three of these advantages I'll just have to see how I get on. One idea that occurred to me today was to film my own shadow passing across the surface of the trees. If it works at all (which remains to be seen) it would almost certainly be so subtle as to be missed by most people viewing the film. This is a good thing I think - and I quite like the idea of having an almost invisible presence in the film.
By the by, lugging the camera and tripod around isn't exactly a walk in the park. Well, it sort of is - but it can be a bit cumbersome, especially with 2 hyperactive and attention seeking dogs in tow. I saw someone out this afternoon with a piece of kit designed for the job: a kind of backpack in which the tripod hung loose behind him, with the camera primed on top of it. He must be able to be ready to start photographing in a matter of seconds - which would be useful.
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030112
The weather has turned again - this morning sees a good old fashioned winter storm; almost gale force winds and rain lashing down. It's really important to me that the film captures these elemental forces but filming the wind isn't the easiest thing to do. Even at its fiercest it's a mainly a physical force rather than a visual one. Filming clouds scudding across the sky is one option (though the sky is a bit flat for that today). It's a little easier to see later in the year - particularly when the wind whips ripples across the surface of a filed of long grass, making the grass look like waves on the surface of water. The rain itself also presents practical challenges to film. I have discovered an antiquated piece of farming equipment hidden away in a hedgerow and my plan is to film the rain falling onto that. I'm hoping that the rivulets of rainwater running down the rusting surface of the plough might look interesting.
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040102
Lambley was once well known in this part of Nottinghamshire because of its wild flowers, and to this day its symbol remains the cowslip. The first Sunday of May was traditionally known as Cowslip Sunday, when crowds would come to the dumbles around Lambley to gather cowslips for wine making. (Incidentally, did you know that many wild and garden flowers - including dandelion, elderflower, marigold, wallflower and rose petals - are still used in country wine making?) Over the years, the Cowslip Sunday gathering grew to become a huge annual event, often attracting thousands of people from the working-class areas of Nottingham. Stalls of food and drink were set up in the main street, and the festivities lasted all day.
Sadly, and rather inevitably, the cowslips themselves didn't last too long, for although the roots may not be disturbed the actual picking of the flowers prevents seeds ripening and scattering, and so the colony does not renew itself. Although they are now protected by law - it is illegal to pick them - the tubular yellow flowers of the cowslip are becoming scarcer still, since the demise of Cowslip Sunday in the mid-1900s was also a result of the increased ploughing of the old pasture where they used to thrive.
Hope springs eternal, as they say, and to the north of Lambley Dumble, just beyond the playing field, is an example of how the countryside can be changed for the better. With the help of the Woodland Trust, Bonney Doles was planted in a day by local people in December 1998. Apart from the new woods, a large area of traditional meadow has been retained, and it is hoped that, by careful annual mowing, cowslips and other wild flowers will be encouraged to recolonise the area.
Dumble is a local term for a small wooded dell through which streams have carved out twisting and steep-sided gullies. The main one is simply called Lambley Dumble, and is visited at the end of this walk. From a distance the snaking line of trees and bushes looks like a narrow copse or old field boundary, but often they disguise deep channels filled with gurgling brooks. Lambley is tucked away at the bottom of a small valley surrounded by a rolling patchwork quilt of fields and clumps of woodland. 'Lambley' derives from Lambs' Lea - an enclosure for the grazing of sheep - although much of the surrounding land is now given over to arable production. Altogether the rural scene laid out before you is one of such total peace and tranquillity that it comes as a bit of a shock to discover that the bustling city of Nottingham is only 8 miles (12.9km) away.
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