"You are challenged to produce a new short film which is adapted from one of the selection of poems provided, written by the poets of the First World War. Each film will act as an episode in a series under the title "TBC""
It has to be 3-5 minutes in length and begin with the same series title that the group comes to a decision about.
Were then given the poems.
I read the first poem: "Anthem for a Doomed Youth" by Wilfred Owen.
I couldn't quite get into this poem so I read the next one down: The Death Bed by Siegfried Sassoon.
This poem grabbed me: I began to envision this poor individual lying on a bed waiting for the inevitable and I began to get a sense of the world. At "...then the pain. Leapt like a prowling beast, and gripped and tore his groping dreams..." I pictured torment and could almost feel how this man, or boy, felt. I didn't think of an animal though instead I pictured people, hands, grabbing him and pulling him about as if they represented his fears. When I got to "But death replied: 'I choose him.'" I pictured death pointing straight at this person.
I read the other three poems afterwards: Cenotaph by Charlotte Mew; Recalling War by Robert Graves, and Summer in England by Alice Mevnnell.
However, I felt that Recalling War and Summer in England were too long to adapt without running into time issues. They're both five stanza's long: meaning an maximum average of 1 minute per stanza. Add on the credits and time may be too tight. Plus I didn't have the same connection with these as I have for The Death Bed.
My idea right from the start was to have the poem narrated by the subject but when I thought about it more I decided there should be two protagonists: the narrator and the 'he' mentioned in the poem. The narrator being present and speaking the poem in the 'he's world: invisible to him.
With this set my next thought was to set it during the first World War but that presented problems: creating a period-accurate ward and WW1 infantry uniform. I needed the uniform as I was thinking of showing several quick flashes of the battle and the 'he' fighting or running across a field in war.
Below are the notes I made on the poem:
I began to look into the words more and started to think how I could represent these in the film. In TDB the word "ward" is used, at first I did think of an actual hospital ward but then thought: "anything could be the soldiers' ward. The point in which he fell in battle could be his ward." So with that in mind I thought of a more unconventional filming method. Instead of it being in the traditional story format (beginning, middle and end) I thought about something more unpredictable, more messy and crazy.
The best example I could think of is the BMW i8 advert that ran several months ago:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_5TwgtJLPU
The fast edits are what I am considering, as the narrator speaks we see short, swift pieces of other things related to what they are discussing.
The narrator will speak in almost a similar fashion to the actor in the advert, a sense of passion and emotion in their voice, a connection with the text and its subject.
The dark colour palette is also a vision I had when reading the poem.
I feel that this style will work because it brings a more intense feel to the poem, the fast cuts and dark tone will bring a deeper emotion to the piece but not making it saddening or disturbing.
So currently my decision is set at adapting The Death Bed.
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