Above is the trailer for the film that I have been working on with Robert Macfarlane.  Only recently, upon reading a Wikipedia entry no less, did I discover that it is an adaptation of a “Sunday Times best-seller”.  Perhaps it is best to ignore the pressure of this in spite of the article actually putting my name to the project.  As the edit progresses, Holloway is becoming more and more entangled in layers and compositions; the thicket is becoming so deep that it’s difficult to actually stop editing the thing once started.  The visual edit of the film is well underway and so, to start building some momentum (as all non-funded filmmakers must do through the horrendous practice of “pre-publicity”), a trailer has been made.

Now this can give only a brief glimpse of the film which is currently looking toward a Journey To Avebury structure and length.  Several aspects are still up in the air including the sound and (excitingly) the music.  However, a general feel for how the film is progressing and its relation to the book can be grasped as it is effectively a film adaptation of the back blurb which describes the twisting evolution and perambulation towards the etymology of the word, Holloway.

Robert’s words have turned the place itself into a seemingly Borgesian Aleph where “history creases, repeats, pleats back upon itself”.  When filming in the thick mud and unforgiving bramble, the place did seem to have some sort of effect that meant it felt timeless; as if forwards and backwards in the space of the path also meant in time with all points converging upon my camera.  At any moment a Catholic priest could have ran in my direction, escaping the purge and melting away into the copse.  Even thinking back to the days of filming down there induces an odd shudder.  Those pathways are not meant to be walked alone in winter.

With the work on the film progressing, it’s tempting to say that it will be finished and ready to view for around mid May.  That is if I can escape the vortex of twig and branch as I delve further into the pathway with every new second of footage edited, every new word placed, every grain of super 8 spliced.  I shall see you on the other side or, as Robert quotes in Edward Thomas’ poem, The Pathway: “And stay; till, sudden, it ends where the wood ends.”

Adam.