It was a poor turnout for this particular meeting, which was a bit of a shame, but plenty of brainstorming happened none-the-less!
The meeting took place in Isleburgh House game room, which was very exciting due to the presence of a hot drinks dispenser, which soon proved to be a tricky piece of equipment to work, but drinks were procured eventually to the relief of all gathered. Once everyone was sitting comfortably, supping their consecutive teas, coffees and hot chocolates, the meeting began.
Despite the presence of a new member (Jenny) we decided to get skip the ice-breakers and began with a revision of the Tall Ships brief. Then we began thinking about it, which went something like this:
"So, what does Shetland mean to us young folk?"
*awkward silence*
After a while we managed to come up with a mindmap that covered these areas: beach parties, sports, drama, riding sheep (though there is speculation this is just Joe being opportunistic to fulfil a lifelong wish, obv), community, music, dancing. In other words, not great food for thought when we want to strive away from the cliché'd stuff.
It was decided the films needed some sort of gimmick to assist in structuring narratives for them. So we decided to take things from a different angle and look at the individual sections our films will be shown in during the opening festival; Aert and Nord. This was when things began to blossom.
First we looked at Nord, which is to be shot from a birds-eye perspective, and came up with the idea of an "aerial journey north" along Shetland, stopping off in five various locations along the way to capture little wacky stories (we decided on five locations because it is in keeping with the 3/5/7 rule, and also because we think it a good number for our 6 minute rule). It became apparent that our geographical knowledge of north Shetland is somewhat restricted, because the main places we thought would provide the most iconic shots were Sumburgh Head, Mousa, Lerwick, Scolloway and Muckle Flugga. So we might need to work on that a little, but until then I'll tell you about the collected narratives we came up with. Which are, in keeping with Maddrim's general style, ludicrous (keep in mind we're following the philosophy "think big and cut back")
- Sumburgh Head: We reckon that the lighthouse here would provide a nice aerial shot. And then we decided to add a little drama by CGI-ing a plane crash into it! Nearby there will be an old lady having a picnic who is also wearing a Puffin Appreciation Society T-Shirt. She will save the day by saving everyone from the plane crash, and then she will get eaten by an Orca. (Something along those lines, my notes are literally "lighthouse plane crash!!! cool old people! orca eats old lady! puffin appreciation society!")
- Mousa: We initially thought of doing a Trapped on Mousa 2.0 move and having the broch as a volcano, but decided that we had already gone down that route and the results still haunt us to this day. So to get the youth theme in, we thought it would be fun to have a young couple standing on top of mousa broch, and as they lean in to kiss they are attacked by Tirricks (aside from this being hilarious, we also agreed that being attacked by Tirricks is a formative part of growing up in Shetland).
- Lerwick: We were thinking perhaps night shots for this one, since Lerwick looks very pretty when it's all lit up at night. Other ideas were to utilise the top of the town hall clock and set off a giant confetti canon (that covers the whole of Lerwick in a cloud of confetti?!?!) or if confetti canons are out of the question then setting off balloons in the colours of the four elements. Oh, and we mustn't forget the winchman stealing chips from someone at the cross.
- Scalloway: Again a little destruction here, as we thought we could perhaps CGI a giant person to squash the castle.
- Unst/Muckle Flugga: We reckon Bobby's Bus Shelter could be used in some way. As for muckle flugga we thought we could have a "Last True Viking of Shetland" storyline where there is an old viking living in a hut there who has just finished building his galley. He prepares to leave the island and pushes his boat out into the ocean, when suddenly a bunch of rabid Shetlanders appear with torches and, due to their instinctual pyromanical urges, burn it! He is sad because it is his life's work being burnt before his eyes. Aw. But it's an awesome final shot! Also Muckle Flugga has a lighthouse there, which gives us nice symmetry, because we start out with one.
Yeah, told you it was ludicrous. As what happened with Masks, we will probably be coming up with a more coherent motif to follow amongst this splurge of ideas, though these ideas were certainly a lot of fun to come up with! :)
For Aert we came up with the idea that we could do a film kind of like the Hovis-advert where the boy runs through time, in keeping with the idea of all the people who have walked on Shetland's land throughout time. We were thinking we could do a similiar thing from the ground, with changing footwear (from viking boots all the way through soldiers marching to adidas and converse) signifying the passage of time. A changing soundtrack could also further imply this, not just music but also old radio broadcasts that could add further narrative to various significant events throughout Shetland. We were also thinking this might be a good one to do in stop motion, and perhaps could start from one end of commercial street to the other. This would require a few trips to the museum to get our local history right!
After we had come up with these two ideas, we decided to play a game of consequences. Here is the best one of the night:
The guy with the cheesy watsit fingers from Toy Story 2
met
The leading lady of the Puffin Appreciation Society
at
the Maddrim 50 year reunion
he wore
a tie with a very dull pattern
she wore
15 jumpers and her underwear over her jeans
he said:
"I always found the appendix to be a rather underrated organ."
she said:
"Am a bovered?"
and then
he self combusted, and she was eaten by an orca.
If anyone has any further ideas to add to the brainstorming session, don't hesitate to email and I'll get them up on the website!
That's a wrap!
Roseanne x
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