1. RESEARCH: Elizabeth Castle and decide which particular aspects of its 1000 year history you wish to make into a short film of 3-5 mins – see below. Gather together research material, such as images, maps, documents, links to online sources and write a short synopsis of 300-500 words.

Elizabeth Castle

Built on a rocky islet in St. Aubin’s Bay, Elizabeth Castle (a castle and tourist attraction) has defended Jersey for more than 400 years. Construction of the earliest parts of the castle, the Upper Ward including the Queen Elizabeth Gate, began in 1594. This work was carried out by the Flemish military engineer Paul Ivy. Sir Walter Raleigh Governor of Jersey between 1600 and 1603, named the castle Elizabeth Castle after Elizabeth I of England. The castle was first used in a military context during the English Civil War in the 17th century.

Plan:

The earliest known structure to be built on the two rocky outcrops on which the Castle was subsequently to be built was the Hermitage of St Helier, thought to have been founded as a monastery and oratory in 1155 but amalgamated with the Abbey of Cherbourg and downgraded to a priory in 1179.

For our film, Caitlin and I decided to base it around the life of St. Helier (Helierus), the man that lived in the hermitage that is now connected to Elizabeth Castle by a breakwater.

We want our film to have quite a dark, creepy and slightly gothic theme, including a narrator talking about the life of the saint and the legends and myths surrounding his story.

We want to focus on both the religious and mythical aspects of the saint, as I think both are important to make an interesting film about him.

WHAT ARE PHOTOGRAPHIC ARCHIVES?

The archive or archives are a collection of documents and records that contain historical information. You can also use archives to refer to the place where archives are stored. – Collins Dictionary

JERSEY HERITAGE JERSEY ARCHIVE:

The Société Jersiaise Photographic Archive (SJPA) contains over 125,000 items dating from the mid-1840s to the present day. It is the Island’s principal collection of nineteenth and early twentieth-century photography and reflects a rich history generated from our geographical and cultural position between Britain and France, two nations that were prominent in developing the medium. 35,000 historical images in the Photographic Archive can we found on their website here.

27/09/2023 AT JERSEY ARCHIEVE:

WHAT HAPPENED ON THE TRIP:

We arrived at Jersey Museum for 8:45am, there we made our way up to the room where we received the talk by ‘The Gatekeepers.’ They gave us information on how to use the Jersey Archive website in order to help us for our short film project. He proceeded to digitally show us how to filter specific instruction in order to receive the best possible results. He was able to give us some information about Elizabeth Castle, where we were supposed to extend our trip, and showed us their archival prints of historical factors around the building.

IMAGES TAKEN:

OVERVIEW OF THE TRIP:

• They told the group of students useful historic facts about the origins on the Jersey Heritage and how it became an archive and a photographic archive known as ‘SJ Photographic Archive‘
• Showed and taught us how to use the Jersey Heritage website and how to filter and modify the filter in order to get to the SJ Photographic archive, furthermore able to find images you need.
• Told us the necessary needs your photographs need to fit in order from them to be publish to the archive eg what historic value do they have to society?
• Showed us printed images from their archive in the building (printed copies of photos that also found digitally online, some are original and not found online)

EXHIBITION – NO PLACE LIKE HOME

The exhibition took place in the Capital House where many project were displayed for, No Place Like Home.

A floating sculpture of the Earth was situated in the Queen’s Valley Reservoir by artist Luke Jerram between 14th and 24th of September and this was a part of the exhibition. This was to spread awareness about climate change and how it is affected the Earth.

QUOTES FROM Mr Jerram:

“I created the artwork to keep this subject on the agenda and also show people what we could lose.”

“Our floating blue planet is just incredibly beautiful and fragile.“

“It will also make people realise what public art can do and it can reach out to people in lots of different ways“

“It was really nice to see the Floating Earth in Jersey with ducks and swans swimming around, which means they weren’t scared of it; which is nice.”

SOURCE: BBC NEWS

RESEARCH ON: post-war tourist attraction, current site of Jersey Heritage and living history.

ELIZABETH CASTLE INFOMATION

https://www.jerseyheritage.org/visit/places-to-visit/elizabeth-castle/

The castle is located on a tidal island within the parish of Saint Helier, Jersey. You are able to reach the castle by walking along the causeway or by taking the amphibious Castle Ferry. The castle is a 15-acre fortress that gave refuge to King Charles II during the English Civil War. It also has many historical aspects dating from; including the English Civil War, the German Occupation in World War 11. The other past of the site is, The Hermitage, where Saint Helier is thought to have lived around 550 A.D.

The spot where Elizabeth Castle is located, the Upper Ward or Mount, was a religious priory from 1155 until the late 16th century. The Islet, as it is known, is half a mile out to sea and is connected to mainland Jersey at low tide by a causeway. So, for seven out of every 12 hours it can only be reached by boat.

TOURIST ATTRACTION ELIZABETH CASTLE:

Elizabeth Castle is now managed by Jersey Heritage as an act to the public service, including as a tourist attraction. At Elizabeth Castle, as well as exploring the site and its history, you can see regular musketry demonstrations and on some weekends there are live recreations of the garrison of 1781 – the time of the battle of Jersey – when historical Interpreters give displays of musket and cannon firing and civilian life.

SYNOPSIS:

The short film we will be producing at Elizabeth Castle will be about the post historic events and the tourist attractions. The short film will include pictures of the main historic parts such as the; canons, the structure of the castle, and the main outside area (the layout). This short film is to show the evolution of the castle and how it once gave refuge to King Charles II and has now become open to the public and marked as one of the most historic elements on the island.

PRICING:

MOODBOARD:

CRITIQUE:

This project overall has been the best I’ve created. The whole process of taking the images, editing, and then creating a zine showed me all the work that goes into creating something like this. By going to St.Malo it created a new area for new images and a different lifestyle and culture than Jersey which meant I was able to take images I would usually be able to take. I am delighted by the way the zine looked in its finally copy, and impressed with how the layout turned out. Overall I conclude that the images worked really well together and how well the quality of these images displayed on print. Regarding the layout I am satisfied that I separated the two locations by adding the landscape image between, it created this sense of a storyline in my zine with the travel between two locations. However to make this zine better in the future I will perhaps add text next to my images to describe what is going on and what they represent, in this nostalgia project.

It is a French science fiction film made in 1962, directed by Chris Marker. It is put together by nearly just still photos and audio, where a story of a post-nuclear war experiment in time travel is told in French. It is monochrome and 28 minutes long, winning the Prix Jean Vigo for short film.

It is cleverly constructed because it uses dramatic black and white images to tell the story. It is inspiring to know that a film can be created from still images and not only video, using audio as the storyteller. We will take into consideration this strategy for filmmaking with our film. We will try to get some dramatic shots that tell the story we want to tell through stills.

Task

RESEARCH: Elizabeth Castle and decide which particular aspects of its 1000 year history you wish to make into a short film of 3-5 mins – see below. Gather together research material, such as images, maps, documents, links to online sources and write a short synopsis of 300-500 words.

Research

Saint Helier:

The main town of Jersey is named after a Belgian monk called Helier.  He set up home in a cave on the high rock, which was later incorporated into the chapel, that was built in the 12th century, which now bear the names Hermitage Rock and Hermitage Chapel. Helier was killed by marauding pirates from Normandy in AD555 and later made a saint.

Military background:

Royalist forces held the Castle during the English Civil War when a mortar shell fired by Parliamentarian forces in St Helier crashed through the Priory roof, exploding 12 barrels of gunpowder stored there, badly damaging the building.

The first attempts to construct defences on the islet where Elizabeth Castle stands, were in 1550 and 1551, when orders were issued to build a gun battery to be garrisoned by six gunners. It is not clear, however, whether these works were ever undertaken or completed.

By the 16th century, cannon and gunpowder had become the dominant weapon of war. By the end of the century the principal castle on Jersey, Mont Orgueil, was out of date and vulnerable to bombardment from Mont St Nicholas. A new site was chosen on the small islet in St Aubin’s Bay and a new castle was built. Sir Walter Raleigh, who was Governor of Jersey between 1600 and 1603, chose the name Elizabeth Castle, after Queen Elizabeth I, and the name has been retained ever since.

Nazi’s invasion:

Elizabeth Castle remained in use up to and including the Second World War, when it was occupied by the Nazis. The occupation by the German forces commenced on 1st July 1940 and eventually ended on 9th May 1945 – Liberation Day. However, Elizabeth Castle was not handed back to the Island by the military until 19th May 1946. During this period the island was heavily fortified using Organisation Todt construction workers from various parts of Europe, including Russia and Spain.

Film research

Plan:

Final idea:

For our film, we decided to focus it on Saint Helier and his life. We plan to record the places where he is said to have lived, as well as locations he has said to have been, such as the hermitage rock. While showcasing the locations we plan to input a script explaining the details of his life from birth to death.

A main part of our plan is to try and create a somewhat spooky or unsettling atmosphere to captivate the audience by incorporating eerie music (dramatic church organs etc.) and using sound effects to emphasize certain points of the script.

Task

STORYBOARD: Develop a storyboard that provides you with a clear plan ahead of how you wish to make your 3-5 mins film, including shot sizes, camera angles, movement, lighting, individual scenes and mise-en-scene (the arrangement of the scenery in front of the camera) from location, props, people, lighting, sound etc.

Task

VISUALS: Produce a mood-board of images that will inspire your visual language, style and aesthetic of your film. That can include found images of Elizabeth Castle and any other visual material, such as still-images from other filmmakers and films. See film, La Jétte by Chris Marker below.

Mood board

About

Chris Marker was born on 29 July 1921 and passed on 29 July 2012. He was a French writer, photographer, documentary film director, multimedia artist and film essayist. His best known films are La Jetée (1962), A Grin Without a Cat (1977) and Sans Soleil (1983).

Marker became known internationally for the short film La Jetée. It tells of a post-nuclear war experiment in time travel by using a series of filmed photographs developed as a photomontage of varying pace. The film has limited narration and sound effects to ensure that the story is mainly told through the images presented on screen.

While making La Jetée, Marker was making his documentary essay-film ‘Le joli mai’. He began in the spring of 1962, and shot 55 hours of footage interviewing random people on the streets of Paris. The questions, asked ranged from their personal lives, as well as social and political issues of relevance at that time.

La Jetée

In the film, a survivor of a futuristic third World War is obsessed with distant and disconnected memories of a pier at the Orly Airport, the image of a mysterious woman, and a man’s death. Scientists experimenting in time travel choose him for their studies, and the man travels back in time to contact the mysterious woman, and discovers that the man’s death at the Orly Airport was his own. Except for one shot of the woman mentioned above sleeping and suddenly waking up, the film is composed entirely of photographs by Jean Chiabaud and stars Davos Hanich as the man, Hélène Châtelain as the woman and filmmaker William Klein as a man from the future.

What is Still Image Film?

Still image film, also known as slide film or photo film, is a unique medium that captures images on individual frames. Unlike traditional motion picture film, which records moving images, still image film consists of a series of individual photographs. Each frame is a single image, frozen in time. Photographers and artists have used still image film for various purposes, including photography, presentations, and artistic projects. One of the distinct advantages of still image film is its ability to create visually stunning and impactful images. The process of shooting on film, with its rich colors, fine details, and unique tonal range, offers a different aesthetic compared to digital photography. The use of still image film allows photographers to carefully compose their shots, as they have limited frames to work with. Each photograph becomes a deliberate choice, capturing a specific moment or subject. This process encourages photographers to be intentional and thoughtful in their approach, resulting in images that are often more considered and meaningful. Artists have also utilized still image film as a medium for their creative expression. By manipulating and arranging individual frames, they can tell stories, explore themes, and evoke emotions. The sequential nature of the still images can create a sense of narrative and progression, similar to a comic strip or storyboard. When analysing still image films, it’s important to consider the cultural and historical contexts in which they were created. Each photograph reflects the prevailing attitudes, values, and aesthetics of its time. By examining the visual elements, composition, and subject matter, we can gain insights into the cultural and historical influences that shaped representations of masculinity, gender dynamics, and power structures.

Examples

City of Gold (1957)

Very Nice, Very Nice (1961)

La Jetée (1962)