As part of the process of creating a film about Cowslip Sunday I need to get to grips with some film editing software. I'm starting that project by hopefully creating a short experimental film.
Sometime last year I bought 'Being Human' - the last in a trilogy of poetry anthologies, published by Bloodaxe. All three books are excellent - containing 'real poems for unreal times'. Browsing 'Being Human' I came across a poem entitled 'In Praise of Walking' by Thomas A. Clark. You can read the full poem here:
Being an inveterate walker I was quite taken with this poem - and thought it was the kind of work that would be ideal used as a piece of 'visual poetry' that formed part of an art installation along a woodland walk - such as the one I have planned for Cowslip Sunday:
So the Thomas A. Clark poem was tucked away in my mind. Then recently, whilst searching for a particular poem on the internet ('There's a certain slant of light' by Emily Dickinson) I happened across an App called 'Poem Flow', in which:
"... the poem flows in a gentle reading animation. The effect is magical, mesmeric, and revealing. You see the poem differently as it quietly reads itself to you."
This seemed a really interesting and captivating way of reading/seeing poetry - and was getting rave reviews from people - so I thought I'd like to experiment with something similar, though I didn't quite know what form it would take.
For my film project I have been taking test footage around the village. A couple of weeks ago, the morning after the first heavy snowfall of the Winter, I went off up into the fields that overlook Lambley, then set the camera up and let it run as I slowly walked away from it. I really didn't think I would be able to use this footage for anything - until it occurred to me that I might be able to 'animate' some lines of the Thomas A. Clark poem over the top of the film. Below are the extracts from the poem that I intend to use:
Early one morning, any morning, we can set out,
with the least possible baggage, and discover the world.
Always, everywhere, people have walked, veining the earth
with paths, visible and invisible, symmetrical and meandering.
Convictions, directions, opinions, are of less importance
than sensible shoes.
The line of a walk is articulate in itself, a kind of statement.
From In Praise of Walking by Thomas A. Clark
That last line I'm using: 'The line of a walk is articulate in itself, a kind of statement ' seemed to me to describe the short film itself, which simply consists of the line of a walk.
As I say the idea is experimental - to allow me to begin using the film software. I hope that I will be able to post a link to the finished film sometime soon.
In my next blog I will hopefully give an outline of how I see the structure of the Cowslip Sunday film that I'm currently working on.
For more about Thomas A. Clark visit:
