The past couple of weeks have been fairly hectic. The first piece of paid employment I've had in over 3 months (which amounted to about 10 days work) happened to coincide with the final week of preparations for 'Cowslip Sunday' - which itself entailed filming the increased number of rehearsals as well as trying to capture some aspects of the changes to the landscape occurring as Spring develops. There was also the little matter of getting my own 'Poetry Seen at Cowslip Sunday' art installation finalised - both in terms of production and getting it in place in time for the day itself.
Everything has been further complicated by the weather. Obviously the rain is a fundamental (and much needed) aspect of the climate - it's just slightly irritating when it all comes at once. From my point of view the real difficulties with the rain are two-fold. One has been the problem of filming in those conditions - my camera isn't waterproof and I know (through frustrating experience) that trying to set up the tripod and camera whilst sheltering the equipment under an umbrella is extremely challenging, particularly for the 'one-man-band' film-maker.
The other aspect of the heavy rainfall that impacts on my project is that my art installation is outdoors. Although the work itself is rainproof, the location (a short, woodland path close to the site of the main 'Cowslip Sunday' festivities) has become a little waterlogged over the past couple weeks - making the actual installing of the work problematic as well as seeming likely to discourage the less hardy visitor.
Anyway as it turned out the clouds parted for 'Cowslip Sunday' and the day was a great success. At the top of this post is the first edit of the start of the film I have been making documenting some of the preparations for the event. Over the course of the next few weeks I will continue putting together the film - with the intention of creating an hour-long documentary. The idea then is to upload the film – as 6 x 10 minute films – to YouTube.
