Halloween Blog - "I'll Murder You"

From a string of blogs about dead people, to "I'll Murder You", a Halloween special!

A short while ago I teamed up with the very talented Sarah King and Francesca Beard, to make a short film called "I'll Murder You".

We were making a 'poetry film' a special sub genre that I had never heard of before, for a competition that London's South Bank Centre were putting on as part of their 'Love Festival'.  

We had looked at the 'poetry film' genre and it was mostly populated by women walking barefoot through woods and fast flowing rivers with a recited poem over the top. Not really my idea of film and we didn't want to make anything that was a literal illustration of a poem either.

First up find a poet. Step in Francesca Beard with her selection of beautiful, and darkly twisted love poems.  Each one exploding, like fireworks, in your head and creating multiple bright visual trails for you to follow.

Second, find a story. Step in Sarah King, a fantastic writer who I had made another short film with "Glumtree", and can magically interweave subtle threads to make the richest metaphorical tapestry.

Marrying film with poetry was tricky and finding a path where neither dominate and both add to the sum was a challenge.

We settled on one of Francesca's shorter poems - 

I'll murder you and keep you in my bed.

Each night I'll find you colder, harder,

less responsive.

Then one day, you'll change,

growing softer, warmer, more yielding

until the moment when I take you in my arms

and you melt.

This had space and was intriguing, and yes we did go literal on it.... we've given it a bed and a naked torso, a playground in Brixton and let it live in a new medium, and tried not to suffocate it too much.

Thanks goes to our fantastic actors Rebeca Grant Pearson who was murderous and charming in equal measure, and Henry Profitt who brought new meaning to playing dead.

And also to our fantastic crew - Sara, Bev, Dominika, Rory, Lucas, Paul, Zen and everyone else that helped out on this project.

The film was chosen for the "Shot From The Heart" Poetry Film festival at the Southbank Centre and has since also been selected for and screened at "Still Moving" film festival in London.