AV News 195 - February 2014
And so it was - a short walk up the Ramblas, and a left turn into quite a poky
side street soon brought us, just on opening time, to the towering façade of the
Palau Güell. Luck was with us - the lady at the desk said "It's free today, and
you can go straight in - it's on timed tickets, but there's no queue - and yes, you
can take photographs." (That was different! Last time I visited, I only got one
rotten ol' view of the chimneys on the roof, because cameras were banned
inside.) The whole place has been beautifully restored since then, and our visit
was a joy from the start.
The house was virtually deserted, and my camera card began to fill up
rapidly as we made our way upwards from the basement stables with their
crazy-looking spiral ramp for horses and carriages and wonderful exposed brick
vaults and columns. I went for the wides and panoramas first while there
weren't many people about (and yes I did have to Photoshop one or two out,
one of the downsides of those clever audio-guide things is that people stand
rooted to the spot for several minutes while they listen to them!)
It was about now that the idea
of a sequence was born.
Working back downstairs I
looked for lots of close-ups. I
love building up a picture of
the whole from it parts, and
the splendid ironwork - both
decorative and structural
demanded my attention.
Back home, I'd soon
strung it all together into a
rough cut, and early on created the graphics for the main and end titles - this is
something I nearly always do. It seems to help crystallise the idea. (Sometimes
I achieve really nice titles
that express the mood of the
piece beautifully. Then all I
have to do is to put some
meat in the sandwich - and
that ain't so easy!)
The script on this
occasion wrote itself - I had
such a lot I wanted to say
about Gaudí and his
wrought iron. All I had to do
was stay focussed on the relatively narrow theme of its use, after starting with
some establishing words - and shots - to set the scene.
The search for music started with my wanting something Catalan -