A peek at the film scape!

The wonderful Bob Edwards somehow got left out of the photo's on the day!!
So here is a little clip that not only gives you a glimpse of what we got up to, but proves he was there!

Visionary Arts: Making it so!

 What an incredible day!!

It's very hard for me to put into words the coming together of a collection of ideas

without getting emotional!

 

 

 

Contemporary Dance Troop with Arts Care Gofal Celf LegaC, Rob Latham and Bob Edwards, Sam Collins, Jacqueline Emslie, Rachel Hargrave and the Cardigan Drummers, myself and Amanda Painting made our way down to the secret cove to film the opening film scape for The Dragon Tree.

 

Thanks everyone: YOU ROCK!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When Mandy and I went down in July to scope the route down, the sun was shining and we didn't have any drums! We got half way down and it looked easy enough! But today in October with all the gear I have to be honest there was a moment when I thought, 'Oh my giddiest of aunts!'

 

 

 

But I knew it would be worth all the hard work to get down to the beautiful cove in Llangrannog.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It became something of a team building experience with people helping each other to make the descent. Certainly the most physical of all my shoots so far!

 

 

 

 

 

While the drummers played, LegaC warmed up on the beach.

 

Let the dance begin ...

 

 

 

 

Bob Edwards and Rob Latham both represented different incarnations of the main character Dafydd as he lay shipwrecked and confused seeing his whole life before his eyes. Dancing around him with waves ... mermaids making a decision whether or not to save him ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Mother of all the Mermaids, Guinivere dances with the shipwrecked fisherman in making her final decision

 

 

And then the trek all the way back to Mandy's beautiful Farmhouse, Morfa Isaf

 

 

 

 

 

 

Up & up & up ....

 

 

 

Great BIG team building hugs

when we got to the top!

 

 
And then down to some serious packed lunching!

BIG thanks to Joy, one of the mums who came to support the dancers today, to Laura Jenkins, Dance Development Manager for Arts Care Gofal Celf and to Zosia Jo, Dance Tutor at Arts Care Gofal Celf.

Massive thanks to all the dancers, drummers and actors!! And of course to Mandy Painting.

But ... BIGGEST thanks to the SUNSHINE for showing her beautiful face ... and to the West Wales Coast line for being a constant heartbeat.

... and to The Arts Council of Wales for my Individual Mainline Grant :)

IF YOU FANCY STAYING AT MORFA ISAF OR FILMING THERE, THEN PLEASE FEEL FREE TO CONTACT MANDY PAINTING:

http://www.morfaisaf.co.uk/

Recording with Elgar in Pigeonsford?

I have been back to Llangrannog quite a few times now and have recorded the sea in nearly 20 different locations so that I can go into my studio and put all of 'the seas' together as one and then listen to see if I can feel the intensity of Elgar’s composition Welsh Tune.

I am convinced now that I will feel the intensity, having heard and stood in the waves crashing against the towering rocks.

This visit I went for a good walk over the coastal path and it is a moving experience! As I went for this walk, I passed a National Tourist Board Sign telling the story of the Giant Bica who lived in Llangrannog and telling how it is his big foot steps and his raging tooth ache have cut up the land, leaving little rock islands stranded sometimes by water. So I need to think about his footsteps when composing the piece.

I saw a friend while I was down there, Yo, and she said that she thought that Pigeonsford Mansion, where Elgar is known to have stayed when he composed his Welsh Tune, is down the turning opposite the Urdd Centre site.

So we bundled back in the car and pootled off to Pigeonsford to see if we could find it. AND WE DID!!

Or at least we think we might have. It said outside that there are holiday cottages to let in the grounds of the farm so I’m going to ring them up.

Imagine if I can actually go to stay at the place where Elgar stayed and compose my piece there! I would be blown away! If I can, and if it is the right place, I will take my recording studio with me and set it up and the cottage to record it there too.

The grounds are absolutely stunning so I am hoping it is the right place. I think Elgar would have liked this. He was one of the first composers to really experiment with recordings.



Many thanks to The Arts Council of Wales for my Individual Mainline Grant. It really is giving me the opportunity not just to journey through my creative mind, but to challenge and expand it in a way I could never have done otherwise.

www.cherylbeer.co.uk

Tracing Elgar's Welsh Tune

If I have to sit for one more minute in front of this computer, I thought, I will blow a fuse!

So I put my coat on and decided to got to Llangrannog. Do you remember in an earlier blog I was saying that I had heard Elgar's Welsh Tune on Classic FM and it had influenced my computer generated industrial piece for the first movement of Dance the Ribbons with the children of the Eco Council??

Well, I thought it might rather be fun to go down to the beach where he was inspired and listen/record the sea and try to find the 4 part string section .. See if I could hear Elgar in the waves.

Imagine it ...  I've got my trousers rolled up, hair wild and random, up to my knees in waves recording the sea in different spots to hear the Bass, Alto etc when I am approached by a camera team making a film for Theatr Felinfach's Cultural Olympiad Celebrations ... so I ended up being in thier film :)) Fabulous!

It was great for recording and I so wish I had taken my little digital recorder but I only had my video. I will wait for another quiet weather evening and pop down again.

I couldn't find the plaque on Elgar which on the internet says is there, so will need to look again but a chap in the cafe said that Elgar was staying with friends from London at Pigeonston Manor?? Now then, I've looked that up on the internet and can't find it so I'm wondering did I hear him right??