From the Sea to the Land Beyond
Overview
From the Sea to the Land Beyond offers a poetic meditation on Britain as an island through archive of the UK coastline. This cross-platform project offers audiences a moving cinematic/live music experience as well as an online tool where users reinterpret archive footage to create their own personal sharable video postcards.
From using decades of BFI Archive Footage, award-winning film maker Penny Woolcock created a stunning cinematic experience, with a score composed by British Sea Power. The film is available on the Space Website here:From The Sea To The Land Beyond. People can create an online video postcard by going to http://landbeyond.co.uk , selecting a coastal location and personalising them by adding in their own photos and videos underneath the score of British Sea Power. The project aims to form a lyrical interpretation of our relationship to the coast by a newly commissioned film / live music collaboration.
These pieces can be shared on different social platforms as well as The Space; everyone involved can view each other’s creations as well as watching the major cinematic piece. These thousands of individual video postcards will grow into a unique library of impressions of the UK coastline.
To make your own video postcard, visit http://landbeyond.co.uk
Watch the performance and film here: From The Sea To The Land Beyond
Produced by Heather Croall, Sheffield Doc/Fest and Mark Atkin, Crossover Labs
Sheffield Doc/Fest is the World’s 3rd largest, documentary festival, attracting audiences of 18,000 each year.
XO Labs works with artists, designers, producers, directors and developers to devise new digital experiences.
From the Sea to the Land Beyond premiered on Thursday 13th June at Sheffield Doc/Fest 2012 and remain available till Wednesaday 31 October.
The Film
Using a hundred years of material, this one hour film explores the role the coast plays in our lives; whether it’s a trip into busy, colourful sea side towns or the remote Scottish Isles, the film is an evocative and sometimes sometimes nostalgic piece of work to inspire people to think about their own experiences and opinions on the British coast.
Film Director: Penny Woolcock
Penny Woolcock is a polymath whose work spans documentary, fiction and opera. With documentaries like The Wet House, and breakthrough fiction like Tina Goes Shopping, she has often blurred the lines between fiction and documentary and, in the process, revealed something interesting about both disciplines. Her latest film for BBC Four, On the Streets, sees her return to documentary with a look at homeless and vulnerably housed people in London.
Film Editor: Alex Fry
Alex Fry has collaborated with Penny Woolcock on her most recent project On the Street as well of number hugely successful documentary feature documentaries.Penny and Alex worked with the BFI, who selected a range of archive material to include news, documentary, nature, entertainment and drama footage from 1936 to the present day.
The Music
The soundtrack of the film is a score composed and performed by British Sea Power a band famed for their live performances. They enhance the experience with an atmospheric and epic score live at the event.
Composers / Musicians: British Sea Power
British Sea Power are one of Britain’s bestloved bands. They worked with the director, developing themes that reflect the themes of the film (work, play, childhood, romance, melancholy, hope, industry, transport, wilderness, the power of the elements, wildlife.
Video Postcard
Inspired by the film, viewers are encouraged to go online, select from themes and locations which mean something to them from an interactive map of the British Coast. They will use these clips as the basis for dynamic video postcards, which they can add segments of the British Sea Power soundtrack to add a message and then share on The Space and Twitter and Facebook.
Digital Partner: Illumina Digital
Illumina Digital award-winning multiplatform production company has worked for the BBC, CBBC, Channel4, Wall to Wall, ITN.
