That film and the a-n Re:View Bursary (part three)

I’m just going to dive in all guns blazing and hit you with the good stuff.

As a direct result of getting the a-n Re:view bursary last year I’m now finally on the right road to making a short film. It was born out of a preceding public art project that started in 2012. That project was based on the design and execution of painting something big, bold, bright and positive on a property in an area of Liverpool that had been left devastated by the Housing Market Renewal initiative. It was to be a big flag, a banner and SOS call to the world that this wasn’t what we wanted. A derelict grey coloured landscape, the streets and skys above seeming to reflect the hundreds of houses covered in galvanised steel, empty homes and people-less roads. The painting never happened. Politics.

Granton Road street party in the 80's

The whys and wherefore’s of the mural project are well documented in my previous blogs on this site or here http://jaynelawless.blogspot.co.uk 

Peter Blake, Village Fete

But for the purpose of moving forward and not straying too far back here’s what’s happened up to now with the bursary:

• Late 2013 – a two year public art project ends in tears (mine)
• I got a massive cob on (an angry sulk) for ages

I’d thought about film throughout the mural project, from a documentation perspective initially. I’d met and discussed ideas with various film makers and about incorporating young people into the process; developing workshops based on documenting, ‘the making of the mural’. I also wanted to invite young filmmaker Viktor Krc over to Liverpool from Sturovo in Slovakia to get involved too, I’d worked with him for 3 months whilst Artist in Residence in Slovakia during this 2 year period.

• Early 2014 – a friend sent a link to the ad for the a-n Re:view Bursary
• An opportunity to look again at a stalled or ‘change of direction’ in a current project
• My interest in film had sparked the application
• Early 2014 –  I got the bursary
• The bursary enables you to seek out professional advice and offer to pay for mentoring time
• Being able to offer people some payment to talk about your ideas is brilliant – we all know in the art world how its taken for granted that so much is done for free
• I’d met with David Jacques (Artist/Film Maker) and Jah Jussa (Film Maker) early doors, they were great and full of reality checks, I knew this was going to be a long journey after our first few meetings. I knew I was a million miles off knowing what I wanted but interested enough to know I was on the right track with regard to this unknown medium.
• Gary O’Donnell, the composer who agreed immediately to write the score when the film materialised as well as act as a mentor in this development phase.
• Sam Jones (artist) who I could discuss content and approach with in depth and really think about what kind of feel the film would have.
• Mia Tagg (Filmmaker) then carried the baton on to actually knuckling down and thinking about structure and narrative and real practical lessons in what film making was about
• I struggled  - opened a gigantic can of worms and just couldn’t get it into my head how to approach it
• A massive story, it started out being a film about why I couldn’t find a wall to paint on but to talk about that you needed to explain the context, then how far back do you go???
• It was becoming the story of my life – which was not how I wanted it
• It was getting way too descriptive and detailed
• My friend Maria said a very important thing: ‘it should be your work – your work but in film’ – after thinking about it I got it.
• I’d forgotten that
• I’d forgot that my work has always been much simpler, abstract yes but letting the materials do the talking
• Then a stream of words emerged, not sure I can call it a poem but I scribbled them down so I wouldn’t forget them, I knew they where important.
• After all the thousands of words I’d written over the course of 6/7 months it came back to 56. Somewhere to hang everything else off
• Fifty Six Words spark a vision and a sound and a loose narrative
• The final mentor came about by complete chance whilst at The Liverpool Radical Film Festival at the end of 2014

On the closing night of said festival we were invited to join in a debate about some of the shorts watched that night that had looked at various political protests. I stood up (which isn’t normal) and started talking about how all protests don’t necessarily look like that (marches/placards.)  I used another project I’ve been involved with over the years, Homebaked http://homebaked.org.uk and my own work L5-6QW http://l5-6qw.tumblr.com as examples. After my ramble a woman called Janet Brandon (who I recognised because she’d been introducing the films) came over to say hello and chat about what I’d said. Within about 10 seconds I knew I wanted to work with her on some level. I had no idea what she did at that point of introduction but she was obviously into films. By the end of the conversation I’ve learnt she’s also a filmmaker. I looked up her work the next day and knew my instinctive creative alarm bell had gone off accordingly.

Early 2015 – In a nutshell, Janet Brandon has been my final mentor and has now taken the film project on itself. Her production company, Trick Films will be overseeing the project and Gary O’Donnell will be writing the music.

I’m really looking forward to working with Janet and Gary, getting to see this next bit first hand, I’m genuinely excited about learning from them, I believe this wont be our only collaboration either. There’s a buzz about it all again now and a clear time-line with an end in sight. It’s necessary for both my practice and my personal life that this particular chapter is brought to a conclusion.

the big reveal - shadow drawings

The bursary has been a great tool to give this whole project a platform to re-launch from – all the mentors have been valuable and continue to be supportive.

I think it’s not only interesting for people reading to see the kind of influences I’ve had during this process, it’s important.
It’s a group rich in talent and I’ve learnt a hell of a lot.

David Jacques
https://vimeo.com/user5423212

Jah Jussa
www.imdb.com/name/nm3595393/

Gary O’Donnell
http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/films/p00dt5jg

Sam Jones
superforager.org

Mia Tagg

https://vimeo.com/miatagg
 
Janet Brandon

http://www.catalystmedia.org.uk/issues/nerve19/women_in_arts.php

https://vimeo.com/25571754