AV News 190 - November 2012
The first line of the poem is 'He woke to the sound of a far distant gun.' I had
watched a programme on TV about the Military Wives Choir and the first lines of
their new song were 'All alone here I lie, As the darkness falls around, As I think
of you and your warm embrace, I am home again'. This was perfect for a man
lying in a cell knowing that he was going to be shot when the sun rose. The other
music is Henryk Gorecki Symphony of Sorrowful Songs (I just love music you
can hang yourself to!)
As is my way of working I made the sound track first, keeping in mind the
pictures I had and allowing plenty of time for the words to register with the
viewer. It was only then that I thought that if I could find the right pictures this
sequence might just have something. I don't like to give too much away at the
beginning of a sequence so tried to make the pictures as abstract as I could. (I
like to make the viewer work.) Then let everything come together as it moves
along. I am of the old school in AV and I believe that the third image is one of the
most important effects we can use to improve our sequences. It doesn't take
much time to look for them and it can make an ordinary sequence into something
special. Having said that this sequence almost made itself, the soundtrack and
the pictures seemed to have a mind of their own.
My best critic is my wife Marilyn and although she liked it very much she said
that I needed to finish it by telling the audience that they had been given a
posthumous pardon (the soldiers that is, not the audience!)
Most annoyingly,
as per usual, she
was right! I had to
make the sequence
10 or 15 seconds
longer to give the
audience time to
read the words, but
the
music
had
finished by then so I
thought I would see
what it looked like
first
and
then
rearrange the music.
When I played it back and the words came up in silence that just seemed to
make it even more powerful. Now I had the job of giving it a title. The working
title was Shot at Dawn but that just gives too much away. I couldn't come up with
anything better than 'For the Sake of Example' so I asked Dave if it was alright
with him if I used that. He was very pleased that I wanted to use his poem and
even more pleased that I wanted to call it 'For the Sake of Example'. I am so glad
that he approves of what I have done with his poem.
There was nobody more surprised than me when my sequence won The RPS
International AV Festival. I will never forget the moment after receiving the prize
when I turned to walk back to my seat and saw what looked like most of the
audience, all the people that I admire and respect in AV,standing clapping me.
What a moment!
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