Market film

Well as you will probably realise by now, Blogging is not uppermost In
my mind, hence the HUGE gap between posts. Oh well.onwards. I have
approximately 5 months to finish this film as May is the anniversary
of the opening of the market. I have roughly 20 hours of footage now
and almost all of it had been digitized ready to review and edit. At
this point I have not a clue what form the finished film will take,
other than to follow my nose as I have done all along. I will try to
keep up a more regular post as the months roll on

Best

Kevin

www.signature-films.com

Cy Twombly 1

I am a huge fan of the American abstract painter Cy Twombly, always 

have been, ever since a massive exhibition at the Whitechapel in 1987. 
So I was always going to visit the new show at Tate Modern: www.tate.org.uk

It is a great introduction to his work, grouped around themes and 

cycles of work rather than strictly a chronological trawl through his 

career, though it's good for that also. What I love(ed) is the sense 

you have of a really intelligent mind devouring the world/experience/ 

emotion and trying to order this in some meaningful way, for his 

benefit and ours.

On the other hand, his work is perfectly, visually, 'grist to the 

mill' of the "..my 3-year-old-could-do-that.." viewer. No easy defence 

against that kind of argument I am afraid, (as I once found out to my 

cost during one particularly heated dinner party).

What I took from the show (I hope to go again before it closes), is a 

renewed inspiration for my 'Market' film. In keeping with Twombly's 

use of layers and creating palimpsests and rich dense thickets of 

scribbles and scrubbings out, I hope to make the visual surface of the 

film just as rich, while trying to balance out the needs of the story.

Well you have to have some ambition don't you!

Best

Kevin

www.signature-films.com

BAM: Archive Images

Well it's a while since I have drawn breath and blogged about BAM ((I
am going to try to stop calling it BAM, as strictly speaking the film
is not solely about Bermondsey Antiques Market, but about Caledonian
Market also, though what I am going to refer to it as I am not
sure...). Anyhoo... Lots of interesting progress to report. I have
now, thanks to the wonderful support of my local History Library, been
able to acquire some fantastic archive images of the market from 1945
onwards, some of which I have posted up on my website: www.signature-films.com

I have also begun a dialogue with the Museum of London, hopefully to
gain permissions to use some of their great collection of photographs
and paintings. If I can it will mean the history of the original
Caledonian Market from 1900 to 1940 can also be richly represented.
Fingers crossed.

Best

Kevin

www.signature-films.com

BAM - Filming

so i have been filming now for over 2 years, taking out first my mate Chris's camera, then eventually buying my own small mini hdv camcorder to record the market, interview stallholders and mainly capture stuff on the fly. so far i have 23 1xhour tapes... i must be insane... this is by far the biggest project i have undertaken and honestly, i REALLY have no idea how this is going to edit together. a lot is going to depend on getting permissions to use substantial archive material (of which there is tons..) more on that soon.

Bermondsey Antiques Market

...hopefully this won't be a boring vox pops kind of film. more, i hope a development of my style of work in other short films - see Signature films the big trick to pull off is to do justice to the voices that have become known to me over the past couple of years, the Stallholders, whilst at the same time making something that is interesting to me visually. 

Bermondsey Antiques Market

BAM - if you want to visit.. Bermondsey Antiques Market, appears every Friday from 4am to around 12pm. Get there early if you want to pick up some of the bargains. you can find it here: StreetMap: Bermondsey Square

Bermondsey Antiques Market

.. did you know that 2nd May 2009 is the 60th Anniversary of the opening of the New Caledonian Market in Bermondsey, South London..? no probably not, but just one of the interesting..  facts to come your way as I start to blog my way through the making of my documentary charting the life and times of the market and reflecting on the changing face of London.