3 Short Poetry Films

As a radio show, visual art is rather overlooked on Headstand. In this guest post Cambridge-based film maker Simon Mullen presents three of his short films featuring his poems.

These short films are at the end of two threads. One is an exploration of the highly textured and awesomely imperfect medium of Super 8. The other is an epic quest for audience engagement. The films exist because I love Super 8, and their narration exists because I need the films to engage the audience. If you don't make films to engage an audience, why make them at all. The films originally had no narration, although they did have a sound track. I found that the general reaction to them was flat. When I attached a narration to the films, everything changes, people liked them! I present here three one-minute films I made in just the last few months. There are more to come, check my website for updates.

 The first film is FIRE 150: This film is about an empty house on the Buckden roundabout of the A1. Its a hugely busy roundabout and Ive driven past this boarded up property many times. And from the first moment I saw it, I knew it must be haunted! Because if any house should be haunted, it's this one. The roundabout is a modern crossroad and crossroads are rich in mythological tradition across the world. I found this really nice Radiolab podcast, where the reporter goes looking for the devil at a crossroad as part of an investigation of American blues singer and musician Robert Leroy Johnson. So who knows what the denizens of an empty boarded up house on the crossroad would be like? I know . . .
FIRE 150 from Simon Mullen on Vimeo.

Credits

Film by Simon Mullen Sound Effects: all sound effects hosted by freesound "very noisy traffic heavy", "motorbike around 1", "passing truck 9" by Robinhood76 "ufo pass", "jetbike flypast" by tigersound "swosh" by man "passingcar01", "passingcar02" , "passingcar03" by Pingel "woosh5" by damco "woosh 02" by Glaneur de sons

The second film is WATER: Life is complicated. Sometimes its a battle just to locate your towel!


WATER from Simon Mullen on Vimeo.

Credits

Film by Simon Mullen Camera Operator Lucy Evens Sound Effects Waves at New York Point by Rob House Hosted by The Internet Archive Length: 1:00 Produced: 2012


And the third and final film is My Friends Are Always In The Woods: Everyone has one or two special friends. Unusual people with unusual habits and habitats. But the strange thing with me is, all my friends are that special. And I don't remember when that happened.
My Friends Are Always In The Woods from Simon Mullen on Vimeo.

Credits

Film by Simon Mullen Sound Effects Wind Storm in Los Ranchos by dhattman Hosted by The Internet Archive Length: 1:00 Produced: 2012