The Royal Oak - an animated poem

Following the success of Cul de sac (below), Channel 4 have commissioned Sandra Salter (neé Ensby) and Benedict to make a poetry film for its Random Acts slot - scheduled for July 2012. The poem is The Royal Oak which was published in Magma. Watch this space...


Cul de sac - an animated poem



Cul de sac is about life in any small-town suburban street. This animated film was directed by Benedict Newbery and Sandra Ensby. Animation by Sandra Ensby. Music by P A Murphy.

Cul de sac was shortlisted for the 2008 ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival, Berlin, and then included in a Special Programme of ZEBRA highlights at the 24th International Short Film Festival, Berlin 2008. It was shortlisted for the 2010 Purbeck Short Film Festival competition and selected for the 2010 See The Voice: VISIBLE VERSE 10th Anniversary Celebration & Festival, Vancouver, Canada.

Working from Benedict's storyboards, Sandra started by painting sequences of animation each painting 5 x 4cm. The images were then scanned and reassembled, placed in sequences and then joined with Benedict's voice recording and Paul's music. The animation technique that evolved for this project - born out of a tight production timescale and zero budget - is unusual because the scale of painting is very small and there is no registration of the images.

The poem Cul de sac was published in the delinquent.


Tired of the Day - a poetry film

 
Tired of the Day is set in Highgate, London, where the tree-lined Shepherd's Hill meets the relentlessly busy Archway Road and where the underground station nestles beneath a canopy of London Planes. The film was directed by Will Fraser and Benedict Newbery, and was shot, edited and produced by Will Fraser. Music by Paul A Murphy.

The poem Tired of the Day was published in Plectrum in 2010. In 2009 Gattili-International published a limited-edition hand-bound version of the poem alongside an illustration by Natalie Pattison.


No galloping - a poetry film



No Galloping is the result of the poet completing a short-course introduction to animation - to see what it's like to animate a film. He's sticking to poetry and working with professional film-makers for now... The poem No Galloping was published in South Bank Poetry in 2010.