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Writer's pictureChristopher Jelley

'Quiet on set'


These are a few words I wrote yesterday whilst with Amanda McCormack at Appledore Primary school. Her project has involved the investigation of the pupils local history through interviews and archival photographs. The pupils then dressed up and created tableaux's of the old scenes in the pictures.

Whilst I was with them yesterday they were being filmed and interviewed about the process with their own artwork 'green screened' behind. Whilst they were busy I wrote this.

tiltle - Quiet on Set

Appledore pupils with fidgets boiling

A torrent of ticks belays the impossibility of stillness

All made the harder as the quiet is demanded

Every shuffle squeak and squark gets branded

Caught on VT captured on film

Every noise and twitch baked in this kiln

Then

Director calls 'Quiet on set'

Camera runs speed

Action filming is on

Then questions short and answers long

Of old Appledore deeds, careers and occupations

Gardeners, shop keepers and life boat stations

Pupils storyboard all these vocals

Memory of their tales through the lens

Connecting points spanning time tying ends

Nodes running back through to the local past

Which the pupils have re-lived as historic cast

Costumes, clothes, hats, wigs

Bloodlines caught on camera rigs.

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