Process – Narrative
I initially expected to incorporate a narrative and an original poem with my film project. This formula had worked to my liking in my film project on Tressilick for the National Trust. However, the two aspects of writing started to blend, so that in the end, I had a descriptive poem rather than a straightforward narration. As the poem started to grow in length, it seemed needless to also use a narrated script.
As I am no poet, I started to appreciate and rely on the Microsoft Word tool of finding synonyms for some of my word choices. This tool enabled me to find the exact word I was looking for to convey my meaning – with an eye to creating a “poetic” effect. I also played around with phrase length and line placement.
Along with my new-found elation of synonyms, I also found that I was employing more and more the literary device of alliteration; again, all in a subconscious(?) attempt to be poetic. I hope I did not overdo it.
I also noticed, in writing the poem, that I was still focusing on the natural beauty of this coastline and not really addressing the concerns of cliff erosion, made even more ominous due to the tremendous number of visitors using this area and access road. Having conversed with my Godrevy contact at The National Trust, I knew that they were not really keen to attract even more visitors to this area. The perfect surf was word-of-mouth advertisement enough for keen surfers and competition organisers to flock to the beach. I shied away from a tourism approach and just wanted to celebrate the joy we can experience at nature’s lovely gem of a coastline.
My film footage and the descriptive poem as it evolved did not seem to lend themselves to a membership drive type advertisement for the National Trust. Perhaps it was just my predilection for a more documentary style of filming. Any future advertisement would need serious additions, editing and tweaking.
Overall, I remain pleased with my poetic attempts. My only main concern now is having to break the habit of constantly consulting the “synonyms” tool when writing – it really has become addictive.
