Park Wanderings - Film Launch!
We’re proud to launch Park Wanderings on Southwark Park Galleries website Sept 11th 10.45 2020.
Park Wanderings is a new trilogy of three short films by Corali made in partnership with dance company Impermanence, and commissioned by Southwark Park Galleries. The films are a poetic response to Southwark Park and Alec Finlay’s permanent nest box trail, Questions and Answers, (after Paul Celan). Corali dancer Bethan Kendrick developed movement material that captures her imaginings of roses, moorhens, diving into a cup of tea and moss covered statues.
Read insights from the creative team below, as they reflect on making the film in lockdown.
Bethan Kendrick, dancer
My experience under Lockdown has been easy really. It’s been different, but still the same in some ways because I have been very busy with Zoom sessions, baking and tidying up.
I thought our dining room was a good place to do my filming. It was a good space to be in and I had plenty of room to do lots of moving in my own home.
Before I started my filming I had to have rehearsals with Jacobus on Zoom, to go through the movements for Moorhen, Statues and Rose Garden.
We had to get the right details such as doing it in different directions of each movements and looking at sizes like big and small, and getting it in the right order. I had to put it altogether with Jacobus, looking at specific details of each film. We went over it couple of times and that’s how I made the process.
I enjoyed my filming but it was long days and was tiring. We had to do my filming at home, but it was good to do it.
Josh Ben-Tovim and Roseanna Anderson – Impermanence – Film Directors
Communicating online felt very strange at first; creating movements, reflecting on them, sharing notes, creating storyboards... all of this through a screen felt somehow more complicated and formal. We felt a real desire to be in the same room, and to be in a shared space after so long in virtual isolation... but then one day it just clicked. It felt like the new normal, we'd found a new rhythm for collaboration and the exchange of ideas. Through a lot of thinking and hard work, on the first day of filming, it felt like we were all on the same page.
The filming process ran smoothly, Bethan was incredible "on set" and brought so much energy and focus. Film crews have a clear structure where each person has a specific role, allowing a ritual like rhythm to emerge which keeps the cogs turning. We tried to create a very clear set of instructions so that we all knew what was happening on the day. The set up was Bethan as performer, Jenny on props, set and costume and Peter as cameraman who were all together in their front room, and then via Zoom; Pam as production designer, Jacobus as movement director, Sarah checking in to oversee, and we were directing. Josh would check everyone was set before each take and then called "Action" which travelled a sum-total-round-trip of 700 miles into the Kendrick's living room and back. It was an amazing lockdown tonic, a testimony to patience and passion where lots of discoveries about long distance collaboration were made which we can and will carry forwards with us.
We've wanted to make something in Southwark Park with Corali for a long time. We came to look at Alec Finlays nest boxes and straight away thought that the work, as well as the idea of a trail was really beautiful. Alec's nest boxes were also made 'after' Paul Celan's poems, and are in themselves a call and response, so it felt like there was a lovely symmetry in using them as a departure point for the films. At one point we were thinking about making the films function in some sort of augmented reality, where you could follow the action through the park on your phone, but in the end we wanted something that was much more immediate in it's production, as well as Lo-Fi in it's digital / physical existence and interface. There is something understated about the nest boxes, which lets the poetry and the idea sing through, and we wanted to reflect this as well as the feeling of each poem.
Our films will be uploaded to the internet, and QR codes will be printed onto small tiles which can sit throughout the park. You will then be able to very simply scan these codes on a phone and instantly be taken to the films, so you can watch them as you stand there in the park. It's nice also to think that this could be an accumulative installation which we add to over time. We've been collaborating with Corali for a number of years now and it would be lovely to have this project, in this place, with this source of inspiration, as something which we can return to over the coming years, working our way through the 20 nest boxes, slowly filling the park with dance.
Pam Tait, designer
A pandemic annihilates reality: suddenly everyone is swept up, tied down and delivered at breakneck speed to the tempest, the cataclysm, utter chaos. Out of a springtime of fear and confusion comes a film. We had time for a chat, a little recce of the locations, a friendly cup of tea.
Working remotely is no problem at first, it’s normal in the early stage of the work, there’s abundant love and trust about and the ideas are strong and clear.
But when the lockdown comes, there's no chance to meet Bethan, the performer, no chance to measure her, talk to her, it will all have to be done on guesswork.
The film will now be made in the sitting room of her house, her parents will operate camera, set and costumes. Without the touch of Bethan I have to rely on a kind of concentrated intuition, to conjure up her body and the things the costume must do for her.
This being dance, the costumes must be comfortable and flexible, fun to wear and move around in. Thanks to the concentration and a great deal of luck the costumes fit, Bethan is happy, the props and backdrops make sense to the Bethan’s parents. It seems like the project will hold together. We proceed to filming.
Now patience is required, as well as concentration - : parcels must be quarantined before opening, we watch the parents struggle with setting and props, camera angles and ambient light.
It's difficult to see what the camera is seeing, instructions are sometimes hard to understand, sometimes the choreography has to be minutely altered.
The chatter of a film set is replaced by the stilted exchanges on zoom.
The beginning was slow and hard, but soon a rhythm was established, Bethan and her parents were superbly concentrated and relaxed, each take was applauded, progress was made.
The second day of filming was almost a pleasure, certainly an achievement.
We were tired and happy, initiated into a brand new process of capturing performance. We talk about the next film project and how this process might develop, we do say that it has been exhausting and disorientating: we don’t talk about all that we have lost by being kept in isolation. After all, a small film has been made: a thing of beauty and delicacy, serenity born in a time of horror.
Jacobus – Movement Director, Corali Associate Artistic Director
As we walked round Southwark park together, looking at details surrounding the artworks by Alec Finlay, we didn’t know this would be the last moment of physical togetherness in this process. This pre-lockdown site experience helped to connect us together in the subsequent shift to remote lockdown working. I think the gradual building up of the remote “Zoom” process over several sessions was important, as was developing of clear roles and visual notes. For the first remote rehearsal I worked with Bethan to support the creation of movement material from photographs and memories of details seen in the park. The costume design responded to Bethan’s initial creative vision, then the costumes themselves helped further generate movement material and ideas. The next movement rehearsal brought more of the team into the remote working process, and for the filming days the Zoom crew grew larger again with the whole team involved. During filming it was sometimes challenging for everyone/anyone involved to know exactly what had been captured on film, watching the live action through another devise or screen at a different angle. However, this element of managed unknown meant we were all united by a shared collective imagining from which emerged some creative, warm and collaborative practice.
Andy Balcon – Music
The prospect of working with Corali, whom I'd discovered through my friends in the dance community earlier last year was a very exciting opportunity for me. When receiving the unfinished production I was compelled to start work right away! and though it took me a few attempts to find my voice in accompanying the pieces I was very much driven to paint the picture of how both Bethan’s movement and vision affected me. The process of writing each piece took me on an interesting journey of experimentation which finally led me back to something I was already familiar with, and though on initial attempts I found myself pursuing an audio landscape quite far from what I would usually be accustom to - I felt the journey itself helped uncover my voice in a way that supports the pieces in an honest and genuine way. I think it's very easy to over complicate things when you don't allow yourself space from the Art you are creating. Due to the circumstances surrounding this period of creation I did find myself going down the odd rabbit hole, but finally, I do feel as though I arrived at something that reflects the nature of pieces, and compliments Bethan's work which makes for a fantastic collaboration.
Peter Kendrick – Camera
It was a privilege to be involved, but very challenging to attempt to help with the production of the film as we are simply the parents of Bethan, the dancer.
Not being able to travel, we had to work out with Corali and Impermanence how to use the house we live in with the lighting/ lack of lighting and my Nikon D5600 which I’d never used for video before.
When checking on how best to use the video facility, the reviews said, “The D5600 does have video facilities, but if you really need to video use a different camera”.
This was all we had, so this is what we used.
Checking videos with the team during filming meant turning the moveable LED screen on the D5600 to be visible to Bethan’s iPad camera so that the team on Zoom viewable to us on Bethan’s iPad could view the playback.
That worked as long as the reflection from the bright sunlight didn’t spoil the view completely.
We are relieved that video was captured, though videoing in a small room with lighting happening mainly as the sunshine or cloud presented itself was a battle, but hopefully the result was not too challenging for post-production.
A challenging experience, but fun to be involved.
Jenny Kendrick – stage hand/dresser
I acted as stagehand, dresser and dogsbody for the project. Using our dining room and lighting it with daylight and domestic lighting was quite challenging: the space is small and the ambient light level is low. Keeping Bethan's lockdown fringe out of her eyes was challenging too!
We were very keen to do the best we could, and having Josh, Rosie, Jacobus and Pam with us via Zoom made us feel less 'alone' with the filming. We followed their instructions as best we could, and I think our ability to understand and do what was needed improved as we went along.
It was a great pleasure to watch Jacobus working with Bethan to create movement - we haven't been part of the creative process before, so that was very exciting to see. It was also a joy to dress Bethan in Pam's wonderful costumes.
It was definitely fun to do, but we did wish we could have provided better space and lighting.
Sarah Archdeacon – Corali Artistic Director
I emailed Josh, Rosie, Pam and Jacobus two days before lockdown officially began, the email reads ‘we CAN do this remotely’, meaning make our film together, the one we had planned to shoot on location in Southwark Park. Bethan’s enthusiasm for the film, everyone’s great ideas, and the wonderful drawings that Pam had already created, inspired me to want to try.
But when I had written ‘we CAN’, I didn’t know anything about the HOW. I’d had a couple of Zoom meetings and suddenly thought anything was possible. With thanks to such a fabulous team, it was. But not without big challenges. What was learnt is that the biggest HOW in ‘how’ we made the film, was everyone’s generosity, artistry and commitment. Now the films are finished, we have started talking about them as ‘nuggets of beauty’ and they certainly are. A triptych that illuminates what creativity can overcome and offer hope in otherwise such difficult and uncertain times for everyone.
An early idea of Josh Ben-Tovim from Impermanence was to create the films as QR codes to be placed near the nest boxes in the park. We all love this idea! and it fits so well with the material that has been created. In practical terms, anyone who comes across the film QR codes in the park could click on the link with their phone and watch the films. Where and how we produce these is still being researched, but we’re really hoping the codes will be close the nest boxes to encourage further artistic responses to Alec Finlay’s sculpture trail.
Park Wanderings is commissioned by Southwark Park Galleries and generously supported by Arts Council England and Mayor of London.
Bethan Kendrick - still from Park Wanderings