Robinson in Cardiff: Crew

Monday 15th March 2010
The day of filming with a full crew. The sun in Cardiff was bright in a clear blue sky. Setting off from my flat around 11 o'clock, we reached the Brecon Beacons by about 11:45.

The crew consisted of a group of people whom I know and trust, especially when it came to reliability and open mindedness for the directions I gave them (all in the Media Arts and Performance third year group);

Glenn Muggleton

Glenn's role was to climb the path on the right side of Corn Du along with a partner, Owen lawrence, whilst filming their progress with a handheld camera. Glenn's own artwork involves a lot of camera work, resulting in his broad knowledge and transferable skills available to me for this part of a crew.

3D moving imagery is Glenn's current investigation, with the technical aspect of the work showing his true potential as a technical camera guru!

Owen Lawrence

Partnered with Glenn for the climb, Owen's role was also to record his progress up the mountain. Owen and Glenn are a physically fit pair and were able to climb at a matched pace. Having asked for their conversation to be natural whilst filming, I was aware of both these guy's playfullness in front of the camera. Part of this filming had to have an elusive openness that I accepted before filming began - possibly when I was contemplating who to cast. Owen, along with Glenn, enjoys such outings as this. I therefore knew it would be an easy decision for him to help me with this piece of film work.

Owen is a performance artist. His current art practice involves baking bread in his handmade cob oven.

Matthew Last

Another lover of the great outdoors, Matthew Last is a country bumpkin at heart. His previous knowledge of the particular path I set him out to climb gave me the one directional twist this piece needs in weaving it with the original basis: Tommy Jones. Matt was first on my list to be cast and, knowing our reliable friendship and inquisitiveness of others art production, his role is most crucial. By involving the memorial for Tommy Jones I gave Matt the role of explaining part of Corn Du's sinister past. Directing the camera over to the memorial took Matt (and Shane) off course to the summit. I was unaware just how far the memorial stood, as I was led to beleive the memorial had dissappeared! Matt, however, took the initiative to find it and let the natural story telling manner of his disposition explain the loss of Tommy Jones.

Matt is a tramp.
He explores performance art through the term existential homelessness.
matthew-last.blogspot.com

Shane Davies

Paired with Matt, Shane was aware of the Tommy Jones twist previously. However, to let the natural flow of Matt's tale sound more fresh and interesting, Shane played dumb and viewed the memorial with acted interest. My decision to pair Shane with Matt is due to my knowledge of how they act with each other. Friends for their full three years at university, there is a free flowing naturalness to their conversation. Their constant chatter makes the climb more interesting, as well as pass as an activity taken by mates. Shane's camera work, as I have seen in Scout #2, can be steady and clear, proving his potential as a master of many trades!

Shane is a man.
He explores what it means to be a man through manly actions in performance art.
shanecdavies.blogspot.com

Lucy Wright

Lucy is a fellow film maker with confident camera skills, as well as a reliable friend. Having worked with Lucy previously on a film I was already decided on using her to help me with the filming of the two groups of guys as they climbed Corn Du. Standing together, each with a Canon XM2, at the bottom of the mountain, we were able to view each others camera screens and I could oversee her filming of Matt and Shane. Due to her film making knowledge and previous working relationship, the help and advice she gave to me was much appreciated.

Lucy's current film work involves the themes of picnolepsia, manipulation and intimacy.
lewright.wordpress.com

Location photos of the XM2s' set up;