Leaving JHQ Rheindahlen Behind Structure Analysis and Plan
Opening Statement:
I remember bagpipes.
I can’t tell why,
Where they came from,
Or who played them.
But I remember the bagpipes.
Notes:
– Deliver it slower, can edit gaps between the lines but I say the words too fast so it sounds odd.
– Maybe too ambiguous and meaningless to open the whole film, it doesn’t really mean anything, the next section does have bagpipes in it so it is a good prelude to that, and bagpipes have a military connection so there is that. But I don’t know if its the best cold opener. It is how I imagined the film starting though.
Title Card:
Notes:
– Maybe add a bit of audio to this? Some wind sounds maybe to start that whole theme.
– Looks too much like an Always Sunny title card for some reason, try out some alternatives. Maybe have it over a shot looking through the woods at JHQ and not just a black background.
20 Portadown Way:
Notes:
– For now, I think this section is done, I still need to work out how it will be subtitled but that’s something for another time
– I like this as the first main section of the film, logically it is the first location you would come back to visiting JHQ and I think it sets the tone well, it is quite mysterious and isn’t immediately clear what is happening or where you are, but it is clear that it is somewhere clearly personal to me and that it is somewhere from my past. There are glimpses through the windows that it isn’t just the one house that is in this condition, but until it goes outside it isn’t immediately clear this is the case.
– I have used all the tricks I have in this clip (the slowly shrinking frame size, the fade to black and white, the distorted musical score, the layered and overwhelming voice-over) and maybe I am showing my cards to soon, I either need to tone this section down so I can save some of these tricks for other more emotive moments, ie the climax of the film at 2 Forfar Way, or, I can instead try and take the 2 Forfar Way clip to even more of an extreme. At the minute I am leaning towards taking the climax even higher, but maybe this will prove too much.
Portadown Way Exterior:
– Follows on well from 20 Portadown Way, think this will be the structure for a lot of the locations, inside and then a moment outside to reflect and give a closing statement.
– Is the first time we see for certain that it isn’t just this one house that’s abandoned, this is clearly a whole street that’s abandoned, so it’s a good moment of stepping back and revealing some scale.
Dream Interlude:
Notes:
– I really like the effect on this shot, the fade in and then the rapidly increasing exposure, feels like a sunrise or the footage burning up, fits nicely with the voice-over. I also think it works really well after the Portadown Way section, this first section eludes to this being a whole place that has been lost and not just the one house that the audience may have initially interpreted it as, and this clip shows what is clearly a similar street (the houses in the background are recognisably the same kind of houses in the background at the end of the Portadown Way section) and it confirms that there is more to this location.
– The description of my old JHQ dreams is nice, it clearly gets across the message in a pretty nicely phrased way (I really like weeds still cracking the concrete), the description of the nightmares is too rushed though, need to rewrite this and give it some more weight. It is also too fast so needs to be rerecorded anyway.
– This is the first time I say ‘JHQ’, it has been shown in the title card, but its likely that an audience might not know what JHQ means at this point in the film so maybe this section isn’t in the right place.
– I really like the backing audio for this clip, the sounds of the wind and the slowed down clunks and crunches of the car driving down the road are really nice, I also love the footage so much. The gang of children on scooters is so fitting with my memories and experiences of JHQ (particularly of Felix, so this follows that first clip well), the kids seem to be the right age to fit in with a lot of the things I just described in the previous section, and I think it is a great first reveal of what JHQ used to be, I haven’t got permission to use this clip yet though.
– The themes of what I imagined going back to JHQ being like and the reality of what being back is like are something I want to bring into the film, and I think this section does a good job at bringing that in.
– Will probably have a few of these ‘interludes’ throughout the film, they are a good way of breaking things up and keeping it a bit less predictable, although if I just do an interior, an exterior, then an interlude as a regular structure it will be very predictable.
WHAT’S NEXT?
Pavilion:
Notes:
– I love this shot, the route I take through the building is really nice, the little moments I settle on feel earned and the big windows with the overgrown fields behind them and the heavy fog are beautiful.
– I am going to write and record a completely original voice-over for this shot. I had previously used audio taken from a BFBS News segment about JHQ, but I don’t want to use this anymore. The rest of the film up to this moment has all been my voice, and it feels weird to then go into a section with 5 different voices all speaking about JHQ, and while this audio did give useful context about JHQ’s position in the British Army and JHQ’s history, it didn’t have any particular relevance to what JHQ was to me, so instead I am going to write something that gives some historical context to the audience, which is much needed by this point, but also brings me into it, and explains my relationship with JHQ.
– I will keep the backing audio I used though, the wind sounds and the more ambient and almost wavelike repeating distorted bagpipe notes, and the footage will be edited in the same way, no changing frame size, no black and white, just a fixed frame floating in the black void around it.
MORE LOCATIONS TO FOLLOW
The Blue Pool:
– I have already filmed at the Blue Pool once but the footage is unusable, this was where I almost got caught last time and its a pretty exposed site
The Globe Cinema:
– Didn’t make it this far last time but I know it is accessible, don’t know about getting in though, there is only the front entrance as far as I’m aware which will likely be locked. But I have seen photos from inside so know it has been possible at some point
St. Boniface Church:
– Just across the field from the Blue Pool, so again I know it is accessible, but I don’t know about getting in, I have seen pictures from inside a JHQ church but don’t know that it’s St Boniface
The Shopping Area (NAAFI, Joe’s Pizza, Aladdin’s Cave, etc):
– Not even worth trying to film here to be honest, I know that this area is all fenced off as it is the main area being used for police training and is such a central location so probably best to avoid it, but could be an area to explore with the drone footage
St Patrick’s Primary School:
– No idea how accessible this would be, I have seen footage in schools so know it has been done at some point, but from the Civilian Mess entry point I’m not sure how easy it is to get to this point. I really think it is necessary to get into the school and actually explore classrooms and corridors, so would be a shame if this had to be drone footage, so I will try and get in. This was the location I probably spent the most time in outside of 2 Forfar Way so obviously has lots of memories.
Cassels House:
– Probably inaccessible from what I know after the first trip, not really a super important location but it’s where we stayed when we first moved to JHQ and where we stayed before we left, I don’t have any memories from either stay though so maybe not the best location.
2 Forfar Way:
– The climax of the film, my childhood home. Getting here is essential but at the moment I am still not sure it’s possible, it is right in the middle of the section of JHQ that I know now is fenced off. I am going to try my hardest to get here as it is the whole point of them film.
Additional Exterior Stuff:
– I’ll try to film some stuff while I’m on the ground in JHQ but I think that I will use some low level drone stuff to get exterior shots which connect the different locations. Having the drone fly at an almost eye level height might not be possible but I want to try and get Adrian to do it. Going between my handheld footage and the archive footage isn’t such a drastic jump, but going between my footage and the drone footage might be a bit more drastic, so need to consider this.
Conor McBride 