April Saturday 18. Working on Time Is So Short

The world has become an even quieter place here in rural Wales. It’s never been exactly crowded and nosiy,now it’s like living in a John Wyndham story. Standing on the empty silent hills where we always walk, there is no sound of modern life at all. No distant drone of planes overhead, no muffled sounds of an occasional car on the quiet roads. Overhead, the beat of wings is the only sound, as birds swoop and soar as they have for millennia.
We have now shot all the footage we need for the next music video, Time Is So Short, now come the long hours of work, putting together that footage, with the song, to make a coherent whole. It’s been hard to find ways to film, but by trying to make the best of our locked down situation,I think we’ve come up with solutions that will actually be quite effective and, I hope, pleasing to the eye. I did consider using the montage of photos above, but in the end, we found other, more effective ideas. It’s been odd, looking back on the images of me at various ages. I still remember the world shattering upset of not be able to find the little soft toy I’m holding in the photos, Buddy. Funny how these things stay a lifetime in the memory. Already, we are thinking about the next project. If things were normal, we’d be thinking about locations and extras, to flim my first choice of a next song, but it doesn’t look as if things are going to change for us any time soon. Later today, I plan to sift through some of my songs to see if I can find one that we’ll be able to create a film for. My head is full of ideas that cannot be used in current circumstances, so I’m keeping a notebook of all those, for the day when it may be possible again. In the meantime, it’s a matter of walking carefully round the house and garden, looking at every corner as a potential tiny film set. Steve has aquired some extra bits and bobs of filming equipment, to help add movement to shots and we’re looking forward to seeing how they all work out. It seems there is an endless list of things you need to get the shots you like! I am begining to understand why shooting films costs huge amounts. To say nothing of the the time involved. Lighting has to be just right, that is an art form in itself, an unwanted shadow here or there and your footage is useless. I get the easy bit, I just pile on the Polyfiller, pin up my hair and do as instructed. How Steve manages to make the finished product look the way it does, it’s a special kind of talent. The capacity to sit for hour after hour, making tiny adjustments, alterations that are almost invisible, until it all looks as it should. Never in a million years is this sometihng I could do. But thankfully, this is a team effort. I just look forward to the day when we can load all the gear into the car and actually go to fabulous inspiring locations and film there. In the meatime though, along with the rest of the world, we do the best we can at home.