In our first group meeting, George suggested that we take walks through graveyards/cemeteries in our own time and reflect on our experience, taking photos and noting down any thoughts, for the sake of inspiration. I procured a visit to a church cemetery near me in Reading and took the following photos on my phone:
After the tutorial, I set up a OneDrive folder for all our paperwork to be shared in. This should make it easier to keep a track of files and production work.
We were encouraged to think of a plan B in case we couldn't proceed with our original idea. Alternatives discussed include stop motion animation with voiceover interviews, trying to contact pet crematoriums and using contributor-recorded footage (e.g. digging a grave).
Esme found a Facebook group called 'Digging Graves' exclusive to an association of gravediggers, which members of our team have joined. We decided we could focus not only on cemetery workers, but also individuals working in crematoriums and funeral directors. It would also be interesting to explore cemetery groundskeeper unions, so we emailed a list of contacts. Whilst looking through Facebook for more grave digging associations, I came across an article about a Russian region holding a speed grave-digging competition in September 2020, which we found pretty morbidly funny - could maybe ask a potential interviewee about it at the end to see what they think.
In order to collate some visual references and develop a clearer understanding of what form our film would take, I spent some time closely watching documentaries and video essays I deemed most relevant to our chosen topic.
Leveled (2013) by David Stewart
This short documentary was a good first resource for our project. The caretaker expresses his thoughts on digging the grave for and burying his own father in the very graveyard he works at, which was an insightful story. I enjoyed the shots of gates opening and closing to begin and end the film, as well as the interview segues into exploring life and death as concepts.
The Story of Brompton Cemetery (2018) by Street Films
This promotional/informative video created by an exhibition AV & digital media company called Street Films for the Royal Parks, a charity responsible for managing eight of London's largest open spaces, struck me as an inspiring example of editing. Its production value seemed high, indicated by dolly, tracking and drone shots, 4K video quality, time lapses, immersive editing and animated illustrative graphics. I also enjoy how it explores the historical background and context of the cemetery's story, embedding chronological narrative into the film and giving these sweeping, gorgeously composed shots some wider structure. The video uses archival material such as newspaper clipping scans and composites them in a worn, vintage diary-esque presentation. The narration (read by Martyn Lewis) also presents key facts clearly, with the script deftly linking pieces of the story together. More specific details I enjoy include the double exposure tracking-ink record sequence at 05:55, the use of reflective quotes over blurred long shots, the textured close-up of vines on a brick wall at 06:23 and the explanation of Brompton as a cemetery doubling as a biodiverse garden at 07:30, linking its Victorian past to the present. This video also echoes the brief of 'People and Place' very closely, covering the people involved in the cemetery's foundation and upkeep, the people buried, public use and other key figures to this space.
Street Films have worked with universities, museums and heritage organisations, fronting the following mission statement: "We love telling accessible stories about complex ideas." I see this as a great approach to short documentary filmmaking, and could keep our group on the right track during production and post-production, sustaining a balance between subject exploration and simplification.
God's Acre (2016) by SMGT Productions
This is an example of "simple but effective" in revealing the inner thoughts of a gravekeeper. Succinct, poetic and bittersweet, this film consists of a subtitled interview and static shots of the graveyard, cloaked in a black and white filter and underscored by calm, minimal guitar music. Our film should be more dynamic in terms of shot variety and capturing the caretaker in action, but could do with a contemplative sensibility, as seen in this short project.
Atop the examples above, I watched two feature-length documentaries, the first being Gates of Heaven (1978) by Errol Morris. It explored the story of a pet cemetery's construction, functionality and mass exhumation. Debates are raised about the burial of animals, places as sacred, pets as family members, responsibility for a pet's life/death, gratitude for its affection and loyalty, financial differences in families' mourning arrangements and the controversy of thoughtful non-human aftercare. Ceremonial procedures are discussed in detail for specific pets' wakes, as well as people reactions to grief and loving bonds. There is a main conflict of interest, which is the conferred inhumanity of exhumation. While the relationship between people and pets is the focal point of the documentary, our documentary could focus on people's thoughts on the physical aspects of those who have passed on - where their souls go, where they are left to rest, and how they are looked after.
Secondly, I watched Silent Storytellers (2010) by the Arkansas Educational Television Network, a 3-time Emmy Award-winning documentary which explores cemetery preservation. I enjoyed the detail that the contributors went into regarding the stories of specific structures and tombstones, cleaning & maintenance methods and how they themselves became interested in researching/conserving cemeteries. This film really made me realise how much care can go into looking after cemeteries and elavated my respect for their caretakers. Tales of restoration from vandalism and weathering just inspired me to represent the underrepresented tending teams, and the treatment of grave monuments as a portrayal of the respective deceased person's soul/character/legacy. This film made me see tombstones more so as unique, one-of-a-kind artworks with gravitas, stories and symbolism behind them, and epitaphs as poetic, biographical pieces of history.
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