Film, Digital Media &Moving Image projects - Far From Home: Mullion School on the Landings project

Far From Home: Mullion School o­n the Landings project

Mullion School ’s budding film makers of the future have been busy making their contribution to the ‘Landings ’ project at Trebah and Glendurgan Gardens this summer, writes Jackie Matthews.

‘Far From Home ’ is the story of an imaginary meeting between a GI and an evacuee o­n Glendurgan beach o­n the eve of the Normandy Landings where the next day over 70%of the American soldiers were to lose their lives.

Local film maker Stuart Lansdowne kicked off the project, giving more than fifty Mullion pupils an intensive course in the art of film making including recording, editing and showing a short film sequence. Then historian and actor Steve Manning -in his alternative persona of Chuck, an American WW II GI -spent a day working with students from across the school looking at the role of American GIs based in Cornwall.

Next, Ms Smith from the History department took students to the Cornwall Studies Library where they discovered many fascinating pieces of information about this area during the war for incorporation in the film. For example, did you know the American soldiers referred to Cornwall as the 49th state,or that in the days before the D Day landings traffic across the south west almost ground to a halt due to all the troop movements? Despite what many people say about the lack of knowledge or interest amongst young people about WW II, we were very impressed not o­nly by their level of awareness but also their enthusiasm for the project.

All this material was collated and handed over to our able scriptwriters. Given o­nly o­ne week they amazed and impressed us all, turning a bundle of notes and ideas into several rough drafts for a script. Then, in less than a day and with the assistance of local filmmaker and scriptwriter Denzil Monk they presented us with a professional working film script.

We sent our actors away to learn their lines while others worked o­n costumes, hairstyles, make-up, props and film locations all of which had to be as authentic as we could possibly make them. Our budding stars and the rest of the crew spent a day rehearsing with professional actor John MacNeil, and as I write we are now ready to begin the exciting task of filming at various local sites during May.

One scene creating a lot of interest in school, not least amongst the boys, is the Dance Sequence. Professional dancers are teaching a group of pupils the ‘Lindy Hop ’ so we can recreate a village dance hall scene. However, as we want the film to be as realistic as possible, our GIs may require haircuts! We also plan to shoot another scene showing evacuees either in a railway carriage or o­n a station platform probably at Bodmin.

Having generated a lot of local interest, the project is now extending well beyond the confines of the school. Local model aircraft enthusiasts from nearby RNAS Culdrose have offered to help us film a sequence involving replica World War II aircraft, we have been offered the use of an American jeep by Simon Smith, other are lending costumes, authentic music, gas masks and other memorabilia. And students from a local college will be teaching our pupils how to apply the make-up and dress hair in the appropriate fashion for the time.

Although the pupils are doing most of the work themselves they are being guided by a professional team of experts headed up by Stuart Lansdowne, and working closely with myself and other school staff Trudy Smith and Marion Bradley. During the last few months most of the students involved have spent several days working with Stuart and the team, learning some of the skills involved in film making and also about all the other work which goes o­n behind the scenes: from research to scriptwriting, acting to costume designing, selecting props to editing film and sound, the pupils will have had the chance to experience the many different and varied aspects of the film industry.

It has been very noticeable whilst working o­n this project that the pupils involved are learning to work in an ‘adult ’ way. When we ask them what they like about projects like this, the first answer is usually, “We get to drink tea and coffee AND the teacher makes it for us,” followed closely by,, “We can listen to music while we work ”. But the benefits of a project such as this are far greater than coffee breaks and radios playing while you work. It ’s about young people learning to work together in team situations sometimes supported by teachers and other professional adults but often with no outside support, having instead to rely upon their own ideas and judgement. It ’s about young people learning to work o­n their own and in teams, sometimes in areas in which they feel quite confident but more often in areas which are entirely new and unknown across subject boundaries and age and friendship groups. Most important of all it ’s about young people learning to think creatively in a variety of situations adding new skills to those they already possess and giving them the confidence to take o­n new challenges.

When the film premieres in Trebah Gardens o­n July 4th we intend to have a success story that the pupils have been involved in from start to finish, that they will feel very proud of, and that they can truly call their own.

This project has been made possible by Creative Partnerships and The Works: Dance and Theatre Cornwall. We are also very grateful to Mullion School Association for their financial help with the project. Jackie Matthews can be contacted at Mullion school o­n 01326 240098