A Meadow, its Daisies and a Raft.

down the road/Feb 2020

There’s a meadow on the hill just outside the village which is full of daisies. They run like white rivulets along the paths marked by the passing of the sheep, that call this field their home, and the water that trickles through the grass after the heavy rains of early spring.

If i was going to make a raft out of discarded pallets and Volvic water bottles this is the meadow where i would build it.

Of course it needn’t be only Volvic water bottles, Evian ones will do nicely, as would the many other brands that find their way to the waste bins in the centre of the village opposite the church.

Such a project is not an idealistic whim but the main scene in an unwritten and unproduced film that may yet see the light of day.

The main protagonist, a male of a certain age, loses everything in a single day, becomes a hobo and then, deep in his madness, starts to pick up every thrown-away plastic water bottle container he finds and hoards them under bridge where he is sleeping.

It could be an ode to recycling, it could be King Lear.

It WILL be a masterpiece, which is why it remains unwritten and unproduced.

The director, who is also the main actor, knows the end of the film - which is always a help – but can’t decide if the construction of the raft, necessary narratively for many of the scenes, should practically take place near this meadow or closer to the ocean where the final scene takes place.

He is also worried that anyone who watches the film will be angry for the way the protagonist leaves the raft, abandoned in the middle of the ocean.

He abandons it for love and dreams but will the audience only see wastefulness?

In reality the raft will not be abandoned in the middle of the Ocean, it will  be narratively abandoned close to the shore, and practically retrieved once the shooting is finished (near invisible fishing lines will be used to pull it back to the beach).

But will spectators understand all this?

The director imagines it could be explained in a footnote to the credits, or even in a written prologue. He prefers the footnote to the prologue but will people stay in the cinema to watch that?

He prefers the footnote because the opening shot takes place on a city ring-road that is in gridlock. Shooting will be from above, initially, probably filmed from a bridge, or else from the road itself.

A text prologue would not be welcome.