Brief
A CitYSj - Enigma (Film College) Production *
Completed with Carlos Duran Martinez as part of our Film & T.V. Degree in 2006, we were provided with a stills camera, access to a film camera and a topic, York. We set about initially taking stills of York's city centre which led us on to Clifford's Tower giving us the inspiration to unearth a true story of York's past, the "Jewish Massacre of 1190".
We wanted to draw comparisons to the York of 2006 and the York of 1190 by using replicated imagery and further inspiration from Stephen Poliakoff's use of still imagery to tell a story in Shooting the Past starring Timothy Spall and Lindsay Duncan set us on the right track.
We created a set of stills, which lie to the right and left of the central image, but just using still imagery wasn't enough for us and an extra dimension was required. So we set out with the film camera and filmed 10 second snapshots of time in relevant locations throughout the city, the locations had been pre-determined by our research into the story of the Jewish Massacre and each represented a time on the fateful day in 1190 showing us the horrors that may have unfolded at a specific place and moment in time.
In the first half you might be fooled into believing that it's a commercial for the historic city of York and the minimal use of effects underlies this. As we approach the second half it is only then that we hear a Crow, first to signify the coming of a 'difference' and to present a tie in to the end, where it is only here that the full significance of the simple sound effect of the crow takes shape.
Tools
JVC Stills Camera, Panasonic NV-GS75 Digital Film Camera, After Effects, Photoshop, Avid, Premiere Pro
*The CitYSj - Enigma Productions projects were completed while at St John University York while studying a Film & T.V. Degree
