#vernon scannel

[savemesurina]

Hide And Seek - Vernon Scannel

Poetry (Lit Exam)

[jagnfilm]

Directed by myself. Cinematography by Michael Coombes. This short film explores the emotional and physical conflicts war creates, both on the battlefield, and long after the war has ended. Based on the poem ‘Nettles’ by Vernon Scannel.  

[jagnfilm]

Nettles

The themes of conflict come through very strongly in this poem, so Mike and I both agree that this is definitely a good choice for our film.

Nettles, By Vernon Scannel

My son aged three fell in the nettle bed. 'Bed' seemed a curious name for those green spears, That regiment of spite behind the shed: It was no place for rest. With sobs and tears The boy came seeking comfort and I saw White blisters beaded on his tender skin. We soothed him till his pain was not so raw. At last he offered us a watery grin, And then I took my billhook, honed the blade And went outside and slashed in fury with it Till not a nettle in that fierce parade Stood upright any more. And then I lit A funeral pyre to burn the fallen dead, But in two weeks the busy sun and rain Had called up tall recruits behind the shed: My son would often feel sharp wounds again.

As we read through this poem, it clearly described a human relationship that has experienced  pressure, and brought up a lot of war imagery too. This seemed like a very suitable piece of literature to base our film around. I feel that we could use a similar method of narration to that used in 'Thin Red Line' to effectively reflect our characters personal conflicts. Perhaps even quote the poem at points during the film that are specifically influence by the text.  

After annotating and analysing the poem fully and then discussing with Mike what he thought about the poem, we established that it was conveying a large metaphor for war, and how it has affected a father and his son. We liked the idea of keeping this war theme in our film, and producing a much more literal version of what the poems metaphor describes.