Fiction Adaptation: "Anthem for Doomed Youth" Analysis

I am basing my short film on Wilfred Owen's 1917 poem, "Anthem for Doomed Youth. I thought it would be important to look at the words behind it and try to analyse exactly what makes it so well-renowned. 

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?

      — Only the monstrous anger of the guns.

      Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle

Can patter out their hasty orisons.

No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells; 

      Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,—

The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;

      And bugles calling for them from sad shires.

What candles may be held to speed them all?

      Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes

Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.

      The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;

Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,

And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

The first thing that immediately drew my attention to this particular poem was the title. It is laced in irony that is almost quintessentially British. To me, it almost sounds like a 70's punk song. The way it spells out "doomed" gives the poem an aura of hopelessness and dispair from the very start.

As I keep reading through the poem I realised just how strongly anti-War it was. I get the sense of Owen putting his very heart and soul into his writings. He's basically writing the eulogy of millions of soldiers in a way that could be quite harsh to read, even in 2014. In my opinion he is saying that fighting for Queen and country (which perhaps the title's use of the word anthem refers to) is unnecessary. No one should be subjected to the horrors that war strikes on soldiers and their families. People are getting slaughtered with little reason in the sake of national pride. 

Wilfred Owen.

    For someone like me who is strongly anti-War these are the aspects that appeal to me most of all. As such I feel like it is important to show that all of those deaths were a waste of many, many millions of lives. To show a pro-war sentiment I feel would be very disrespectful to Wilfred Owen's original writings. 

    To conclude with I will also state that I see him as an observer in this poem, rather than an extension of his own persona. As such I also feel this gives it an added gravitas that is not revealed in much poetry. This helps it relate to even young audiences close to 100 years after it was initially written.

Fiction Adaption: Research Into Poem

For my chosen poem, "Anthem For Doomed Youth" I decided I would jump headfirst into the research surrounding it and its author.

The first thing I did was look for videos based on the poem on YouTube. Almost immediately I found narration's by famous actor's such as Sean Bean and Stephen Fry.

First I listened to Sean Bean's version:

I found out his version was taken from a Remembrance Documentary on World War 1 so that will be something i'll have to seek out. When I listened to his version I thought it was very chilling, it sounded like it had come straight from his heart when he performed it.

Although I realised it before it brought to my attention just how powerful the original piece still is. A good world to describe it would be spine-chilling. The reading was served very well I feel by the background sounds of bombings and gun shots. It added some serious tension to an already powerful reading. 

Next up I listened to Stephen Fry's version.

To be honest I was actually quite disappointed in his version. Which is unusual since Stephen Fry is one of my favourite TV actors. I think that it seemed a bit too scripted. By that I mean it didn't feel like he was putting his heart into it like in Bean's version. Don't get me wrong, it was a still a very solid reading. But it was just too scripted, too overly acted and too dull for someone of Fry's talent. The music accompaniment was also distracting and didn't add anything to it.

However looking at these two narratives it has made me decide that I want my finished film to have a powerful, tense reading by the V/O in which tension is mounted through the use of sound effects rather than an orchestra or piano accompanying it which I would find very distracting.

Fiction Adaption: Idea for Short Film

Yesterday I said I would look into some more story ideas for my short film. The problem was that I was sure about the certain 'feel' I wanted for it, but not the film's general plot. The only thing I knew was that I want it to have a certain vibe. Besides the dark, morbid tone that I feel Wilfred Owen's poem conveys I wanted it to have a certain essence. That essence is nostalgia, and a mixture between the old and the new.

I felt that it's important to consider the timelessness of a poem like "Anthem For A Doomed Youth". It's just as relevant to today's world as it was 100 years ago. So I want to bring it into the present day via a nod to the past.


My idea is to have a young man who is rummaging through his family's attic. Inside he finds a cardboard box containing old photographs and books. He finds a dusty old book covered in cobwebs. He opens it to find written notes and old pictures of his deceased Grandfather. It is then that he reads what appears to be a poem. The poem he reads is of course "Anthem For A Doomed Youth" which is implied to be written by the grandfather.

A V/O then starts and carries on throughout the film as it relates back to the grandsons own imaginary thoughts of the poem's vivid imagery. At the end of the film we see the same young man walking towards an unmarked grave. He places some flowers as well as a poppy and a photograph next to it in remembrance.

Digital News Production: Ideas For Group Project

For this new Unit I have been assigned to come up with ideas for a Digital News film as part of a new group project. For this I am working with Aaron Perks, Kate Sergeant and Sam Babington. We were given a brief into Digital News as well as being given examples including a showing of a BBC News report to see how we can structure it together. We analysed the film and everything we knew about reporting to think of ways to make an interactive website based on delivering the news. How did we go about this?

Target Audience: 

The first thing we decided once we got into our group was that we wanted to target a younger audience, instinctively we knew that those aged 16-24 will be the most savvy when it comes to reading news online. It made sense to us that since those in that age group are students that have left school and are moving up into higher education we should focus on that audience. We are aware that this also makes our website more of a niche but it will give us a larger foothold in securing that younger audience versus a broader general news program.
There are several categories we have chosen to focus on for our group project:

Brand Identity: 

(Logo)- black background, white headline. There could also be sub-headings included such as purple, green and blue for the different categories of news topics.

Categories:

Entertainment: This category is possibly the most crucial, especially for our target audience since younger people are primarily interested in the world of entertainment (i.e Film, TV, Music etc.)
We could also find a way of linking it towards them via stories based around students and anything they can relate to such as popular clubs or typical student tropes.

Art & Culture: This category is meant to be informative as well as educational, it also broadens the base of our target audience.

Celebrities: Undoubtably the easiest way to gain a younger audience is to base a category around showbiz culture. Particularly in this topic which is rife which controversy, debate and plenty of gossip. The unique part will be putting our own spin on it to make it different than other celebrity driven web based material.

Gadgets: This is quite unique to our channel as most news driven channels tend to skip over this sort of informative discussion. The truth is that more and more student based demographics are heavily into finding out about upcoming technology. We could make it very interactive for our audience and focus on different topics such as the new iPhone 6 and the controversy surrounding it. (See below.)

We do want to reach as large a possible audience in our demographic so we will focus on an unspecified category to cover other major news stories (i.e Politics, War) that won't fit into the above categories. This will most likely be expanded on in the weeks to come.

One of the most important things to remember though is that although the website is entertainment based and it is aimed at the student demographic its important not to insult the audience. This means we shouldn't patronise them and shouldn't base it so heavily specifically on students. This could lead to alienating some older viewers as a result.

What category am I working on?

For this group project I will be focusing on the Gadgets category.

Source Examples To Use: 

Apple's competitors made fun
 of their recent controversy.

Social Media (Facebook, Twitter etc.
TV/Film
Newspapers/Magazines/Articles


An example of a popular story centred around this category would be the controversy over Apple's newly released iPhone 6. News has spread across social media that they have received some complaints that their new phone bends easily. This has caused many to be put off or start panicking although Apple tries to assure people in a statement that very few complaints have been received in the last week.

I found the original article based on this story on The Guardian's website.
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/sep/25/apple-response-bend-iphone6-6p-plus-nine-complaints

Fiction Adaptation: Selecting a Poem

I have just started my 2nd year of Uni and am now preparing towards my new assignment. This project is based around a short fictional film adaption of a poem. We have been given a selection of five different poems and have been asked to work on one of them.

Wilfred Owen,
author of
 "Anthem for a Doomed Youth"

I have picked 'Anthem for Doomed Youth' (1917) by Wilfred Owen as my first pick. The reason I chose this is because of the subject matter which is detailed in such a way that it could be considered timeless, and relate to the struggles and horrors that War brings. It is very much an anti-war statement and describes how it effects the soldiers families as well.

In a lot of modern adaptions of literature there are sometimes changes made to the characters, the setting or the time-period chosen. This can often be to the detriment of the original fans. But it can also pay off such as in the BBC's hugely popular TV series adaption of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's, 'Sherlock.' I think that the reasons such adaptions work is that they can change certain things to keep it fresh but they manage to keep the original auteurs spirit of their work so as to not alienate the audience.

For my adaption of Wilfred Owen's poem I am going to try and keep the essence of the original intact. This is from the point of view of a post-traumatic solder who is mourning for his comrades. I wrote down some rough notes on possible story elements for my short film:

• Nearby he hears the sounds of gunshots and screams of anguish.
• I will also include a church and the sounds of church bells ringing.
• This version will be set in the aftermath of the WWII era. The reason I chose this era is because its slightly more relatable as their are still veteran soldiers and it's easier to get access to vintage artefacts from that era of soldiers such as photographs. 

British Troops going over the top of the Trenches.

It is important to mention that my thoughts on a specific story for my short film are still up in the air but I am going to research into different story elements and will flesh them out over the next couple of days.

An Introduction To Our Second Year

Today we started the first official day of our TV Production course. It was interesting to come in and see that the Maidstone Studio had received entirely new renovations to it's space and had added equipment. Our course leader Helen briefed us on our first of two units which are running simultaneously.

1. Digital News Production (working in groups of 3 or 4)

For this project our main target is to discover an understanding of how a news and current affairs program is put together. The idea is to help us hone our skills in the production and post-production departments. It gives me a chance to challenge myself in these areas as well as in collaborative efforts.

• We have been asked to make our own news channel website through a video source such as Youtube, Vimeo or Dailymotion as well as added content.
• A news "teaser" for our channel.
• We have to make a news "package" 2:00-2:30 minutes in duration.
• Also a 'live OB report on location recorded live (with the possibility of pre-shot material)

Along with this we have been also asked to complete a critical case study that is approximately 1500 words in total. This will count towards 30% of the total grade. We will also need to routinely update our blogs on our continued progression.


2. Fictional Adaption (working independently) 


This project sounds very interesting to me, we have been asked to adapt a poem from The First World War era and turn it into a short film 3-5 minutes in length. This includes titles and closing credits. The idea is to build a connection with the chosen poem and be creative with different methods to construct a film concoction.

The poems to choose from are:

-Anthem for a Doomed Youth - by Wilfred Owen (1917)

-The Death Bed - by Siegfried Sassoon (1916)

-The Cenotaph - by Charlotte Mew (1919)

-Recalling War - by Robert Graves (1938)

-Summer in England, 1914 - by Alice Meynell (1914)

As well as the finished film (uploaded into a Quicktime file and on YouTube) we must also complete a film 2000-2500 words in length. This must include Harvard Referencing.






I can't wait to get involved in these new projects. I am very much looking forward to these assignments and finding out what's going to occur in the year ahead.