It all started as a simple exercise designed to beat the boredom and the extreme limitations forced on my business by the lockdown at the end of March. I thought I would try and practice focus pulling with different lenses just for fun.
As soon as the first footage was in the can, as it were, or the images on the hard drive and the quest for the most suitable lens had led to a pretty useful candidate, the ever-recurring question popped up and wouldn’t let go – so what? At each step, this question has the annoying habit of forcing you to find a satisfactory answer. Which makes it one of the most useful annoyances the universe can throw at you.
Step by step the elements grew in number. Still, by themselves they resembled a mere skeleton. Only once I had chosen the right music for each element something more organic began to take shape. Eventually, the travel theme gelled tying the disparate bits together with the help of one of my all-time favourite cars, my 2CV. It was slow but fun. Nothing beats floating across the French countryside in the blinding summer sun at 50 miles an hour in an open tin can. Why not use it to cross continents on my bookshelves?
So that’s what I did. And after all the exertions of the trip, some well-deserved rest at the beach was a natural conclusion of a successful holiday. Finally, all that the story still demanded was taking care of a loose end. So my travels ended as they began, with my 2CV.
That’s the story of My Travels Along My Bookshelves. And in their annual competition, Finchley Film Makers gave it the 2020 award for best editing. Not too bad for a simple focus pulling exercise.
