Back in May of this year I was commissioned by Cynnal Cymru to make a film about Sustainability in Wales. I was to accompany Photographer Daniel Green on a journey around Wales. Dan was going to photograph 20 people/groups who were on the Cynnal Cymru Green list. My task was to capture what they had to say about their contribution to a sustainable Wales.
The Wales Green List celebrates individuals making Wales a better and more sustainable place to live. It’s the first list of its kind in Wales, bringing together the different elements of sustainable development – environmental, economic and social – in one award.
We had very little time to accomplish this huge task ahead. A little over four weeks was our filming schedule! and we also had to navigate our way around other peoples plans. A logistical nightmare was unfolding. To top it all off the plan Widelode had for the film wasn’t as straight forward as collecting the piece to camera and covering it with B roll(footage that adds meaning to a sequence), we wanted to create a Audio Visual sound scape running through the film using only organic sounds recorded on my journey as well as having the bridging sections between people talking to be pure AV. Now that takes a little time.
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When Widelode started as a video production company in Cardiff about 7 years ago we started looking into AV remixing and were inspired by the likes of Cold Cut and Hexstatic. Over the years we created quite a few videos and performances along this vain our first ever being Convoy vs the Bandit http://www.widelode.com/convoy-vs-the-bandit. We learnt a lot from the early Av videos and developed our technique and started creating more complex pieces like Worldy Music http://www.widelode.com/worldy-music, and Cardiff Characters http://www.widelode.com/cardiffcharacters, we had always wanted to look at a much larger project that was driven by the AV but hadn’t found the right one till now. There just seemed a natural synergy between a project that was championing Sustainability in Wales and creating a musical score from the organic sounds I picked up on the film.
The journey through Wales was fantastic and the true variety of people I met was inspiring, from the big players in the Sustainable world like CAT (Centre for Alternative Technology) to the lovely women of llanddewi brefi Women’s Institute who are making the changes that we all need with our everyday life’s. I don’t feel that the journey has turned me into a Eco Warrior but has shown me that there are many forms of sustainable living, well being and education that are key to a successful sustainable Wales.
For further information on Sustain Wales and the Wales Green List http://www.sustainwales.com/home/en/campaigns_greenlist.aspx