Friday, November 18, 2011

FRIDAY VIDEO/FILMPOEM: Two Elizabeth Bishop poems filmed by John Scott



John Scott is an independent filmmaker and television producer. He has directed 14 projects, including documentaries, and currently is a professor in the Television-Radio Department at Ithaca College in New York. He has won many awards and his work is shown in film festivals around the world.

The question I put to John in an email on the two filmpoems (Sandpiper and One Art) he sent to VidPoFilm was, "both films have a visual narrative that connects to the poem, reflects its images, intersects with the poem without becoming simple illustration.

In creating a film poem, what is your intent? A new poem that emerges from the confluence of the art of a poet and filmmaker? Or a way to present a powerful and important poet's work to a wide audience? Your work is beautiful. A joy to watch."

He wrote:
I am not interested solely in being illustrative -- I am interested in at times being playful with the way the visuals/sounds and the words come together in an effort to use the expressive powers of visuals and sounds. There's lots of potential in the medium itself that I think might otherwise be lost if it is simply slaved word for word to the text. These two versions are especially free because they were kind of explorations in/experiments with using various techniques.

And further clarified with what he called "sort of the party line on style":
I believe the beauty of Bishop’s poetry is that it is so loaded with the spirit of the moment, in the fragmentary, in the lush, in the juxtaposition of contrasting images and in the point of view of its subjects. What’s needed to make this come alive is a lyrical visual style to re-interpret this world into the cinematic mode. The movie needs to make use of the expressive tools that can come with the cinematic voice including techniques like time exposure, time-lapse photography, play with screen size and aspect ratio, multiple-exposure and slow motion. The result will at times be highly expressive in an effort to give the world of the poetry a magical or a heightened point of view that will contrast with the more traditional feel of the narrative segments.
In these two filmpoems, you'll see many cinematic techniques, Bokeh, split screens, time lapse, different colours, but the images connect to the poems, recognizably. They are not impressionistic, abstract pieces that try to capture the mood or feeling evoked by the poems but are rooted in narrative. It is not a traditional narrative, though. Rather, we see a visual narrative that accompanies the readings of the poems but that does not literally portray or overtake the poems they are representing. There is a rhythm of camera angles and repetitions that gives a cadence or a musicality to the visual images as they unfold through the filmpoems. I particularly like the voices - the clarity of the readings in both pieces is superb, as is the timing. And the young girl's voice in Sandpiper is, of course, arresting. Also the movement of a central image, a sandpiper in Sandpiper and a dandelion seedhead in One Art, into drawing, from film photographic image to hand-drawn animated image is beautiful. These are both superb filmpoems. Do watch, and enjoy.


direct link: Sandpiper

From the notes at YouTube: ""Sandpiper" is a poem that was written by Elizabeth Bishop in 1965 and it is believed that it was based on observations she made on a trip she made as an adult back to Nova Scotia. Bishop's adult life took her in many directions and places, and she has explicitly compared herself to the sandpiper and (presumably) both of their quests to endlessly seek (enlightenment?) through careful observation."



direct link: One Art

Director’s Statement: At the age of six after losing her father and then her mother Elizabeth Bishop was forced to leave Great Village, Nova Scotia -- a town whose distinct oral traditions and whose warm and colourful characters had an affirming, restorative power on her. This shock set in motion a lifelong quest for Bishop (a woman who would become one of the twentieth century’s best poets) to find home and the peace of mind she had once experienced as a girl. Her quest had many tragic consequences in her restless adulthood, but she solves the riddle of how to lose in her old age, and in her poetry that engagingly re-imagines her early years in Nova Scotia.


John Scott says, "There's a larger project in the works here and it's spelled out completely by accident and really in too much detail here: http://elizabethbishopcentenary.blogspot.com/2011/10/filmmaker-john-d-scott-shares.html"

Please join his mailing list (click on Elizabeth Bishop Project) to be updated on the progress of this exciting filmpoetry project.



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5 comments:

  1. These are beautiful films. I'm so glad to learn of Mr. Scott and his project. I'll be sure to link back here when I feature each of these at Moving Poems.

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  2. Thanks so much for sharing. It was great to read your thoughts. Great site!

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  3. They are superb films, Dave. Glad to hear you'll feature them at Moving Poems too.

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  4. A joy to share, John, and the post is up at VidPoFilm but I tend to tinker for a few days with the writing. While I share the post to Facebook and Google+, I also share the videos directly from YouTube. A few people have responded enthusiastically, which is unusual for video or film poetry (I find). These videos should have view counts in the hundreds of thousands and I think education is the key, but that's grist for another article.

    VidPoFilm is doing a 'Theoretical Mondays,' and on Wednesdays a 'Video/Film Poets talk about making Video/Filmpoems' (on process, could include interviews). If either of those appeal to you, or you have something that might fit, by all means send it along.

    My only rule is that we will feature a video/filmpoet's work once a year - that could be 3 times a year if in each category - this mostly to avoid a cliquishness where the same filmmakers are featured over and over when there is so much amazing work out there.

    Thinking we could definitely do a Wednesday piece on your Elizabeth Bishop project, and perhaps you have some writing already, or this could help you write an article on what you're doing and some of the artistic aims in your filming. Cross-posting is preferable, too. It's about disseminating the amazing filmpoems being created.

    If any of your students have written great papers on this art form, have them submit them to vidpofilm{at}gmail.com.

    Also on the last Sunday of each month I'm opening the site to a 'Group Show.' One video/film per person, a few short sentences to give people an idea of what it is, and I'll post them all (no editing or curating except to make sure it is a video/film poem). Student films are definitely appreciated.

    Many thanks for contacting me - truly superb films of a truly superb poet's poems.

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  5. No student work at present comes to mind for your show. I do have colleague that has work that might fit. I've sent him a link to your site. I have plenty of things written about the larger Bishop project -- let me know what you'd find most appropriate that we haven't already touched on.

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A Pulsing Imagination - Ray Clews' Paintings

A video of some of my late brother Ray's paintings and poems I wrote for them. Direct link: https://youtu.be/V8iZyORoU9E ___