Comma Film

Comma Film is a project run by the Manchester-based publishing house, Comma Press, designed to explore and celebrate the filmic potential of short literary texts published in the North West of England. Since October, it has coordinated a series of short adaptations by the best of the region’s filmmakers, working as a collective. Starting with poems, these filmmakers were given free reign to interpret the work – the only condition being that the poem had to be by a published poet, and that the two creative processes (writing and filmmaking) weren’t to be integrated. The result was a series of highly crafted, ultra-short ‘poem-films’ (1-4mins), most of which were made as short challenges on low or no budget.
Around 30 new films were made at this stage, the best of which have been shown around the world. The project is now stepping up to adapting short stories from Comma’s internationally acclaimed stable of short fiction; with the medium term plan to launch a special festival of adaptations, commissioning work from across Europe.
On 14th September Comma Film will be presented at the Bambuddha pub by the English director Lisa Risbec, a supporter of the project.

http://www.commapress.co.uk/?section=commaprojects

14th september, 18.00, Bambuddha

Shorts

Desires, Kate Jessop

A short animation exploring the way we hide our dreams and desires, lock them away for safe keeping, instead of realising them. Based on a poem by Gaia Holmes.

Video Kid, Charlotte Caetano

An animation using Adobe After Effects to explore the fears of parenthood about the amount of television consumed by young children. An EEG of a person watching TV shows that after about half an hour the brain decides that nothing is happening, and goes into a hypnoidal twilight state, emitting alpha waves. This is because there is such little eye motion. In effect the brain goes to sleep. Based on a poem by Chris Woods.

Nothing, Christine Flannery

‘The Spanish call it nada / I call it Nowt…’. A very short animation using blank backdrop and detail to reflect the minimalism of the subject. John Cooper Clarke’s poem is read in a Liverpudlian accent (to disorientate the reader’s association of the poem with Manchester) and realised visually in the simplest way and most eloquent way, through sign language.Based on a poem by John Cooper Clarke.

Claustrophobia, Charlotte Caetano

An After-Effects animation exploring the odours and nauseas of a ‘morning-after’ bus ride to work, sharing an intimate space with people barely awake and not fully recovered from their sordid nights of passion. Not for the squeamish. Based on a poem by Gaia Holmes.

Beans , Sharon Keighley

A suitably comic interpretation of an irreverent poem about a saint who became obsessed with the world of pulses. Using stop-frame animation, a variety of beans, and a clockwork priest. Based on a poem by Gaia Holmes .

Heart Wrap , Lisa Risbec

A beautifully paced and textured film, balanced against the dulcet readings of the poet herself, recalling a short voyage into emotional vulnerability, unwrapped passion, hurt, and eventual return to self-preservation. Based on a poem by Shamshad Khan .

Archaeology , Lisa Risbec

A multi-layered and textured journey through the strata of a woman’s personal history. Using stop-frame and found imagery, it explores the past’s ability to keep returning to us, no matter how hard we try to lay it to rest. Based on a poem by Gaia Holmes.

Miles Platting Station , Kate Jessop

Following Simon Armitage’s metaphoric journey from the Pennine moors down into the bustle and noises of central Manchester, dedicated to a station that no longer exists, and using images from Manchester’s other ghost station: Mayfield Station (also known as Piccadilly’s ‘Platform 15’). Poem performed by Jim Hinks. Based on a poem by Simon Armitage.

Burger Man, Sharon Keighley

A stop-frame animation telling the story of a lonely, but friendly owner of a burger van selling food to ‘the drunken masses’, in a cold, wet Northern town; a solitary male figure flipping burgers while dreaming of the Adriatic. Based on a poem by Gaia Holmes.

Square Pears, Rare Bears , Sharon Keighley

A short stop-frame celebration of Ed Barton’s tongue-twisting ditty, featuring pear drops and gummy bears. Based on a poem by Ed Barton.

Streets, Sarah Eyre & James Fisher

A visual study of Salford’s Liverpool Road, whose close-packed streets lost countless souls to the Great War of 1914-1918, and which has since seen the streets themselves bulldozed, and not replaced, and all sign of any memorial for the dead removed as well. Based on a poem by David Constantine .

When the Telescope Came , Kate Jessop

An extended animation using performance art, dance and Kate Jessop’s inimitable visual style: a unique blend of layering, juxtaposition, and pictorial rhythms. Telling the story of a woman possessed by craving a greater understanding of the cosmos, who turns her house into a telescope, and then tries to fight it off, blocking out all light and information about the outside world completely. The poem is taken from a longer sequence by Diana Syder, exploring the relationship between poetry and cosmology, titled The Planet Box. Based on a poem by Diana Syder.

I Have Become a Stranger to My House, Gwendolen Osmond

A live action montage celebrating the peculiar idiosyncrasies that make a house a home, that can equally conspire to alienate us if we leave it for too long. Based on a poem by Helen Clare.

Images of War, Scott Davenport

An experimental film tracing the after effects of a life as a war photographer on a man’s retirement. Contains disturbing images. Based on a poem by Chris Woods.

Rain,Scott Davenport

A comic short ‘celebrating’ aquatic life in Britain’s never endingly wet weather. Based on a poem by Segun Lee French.

Waiting, Fiona Collins

A live action poem about…. you guessed it…. waiting. Based on a poem by Julian Daniel.

Violins and Horses are Pianos, Lisa Risbec

Using a mix of 3D and 2D stop motion animation, this short film explores the memories and dreams of an aged composer, returning for the last time to the Bulgarian village where he grew up. Based on a short story by David Constantine.

The Loss, Kate Jessop

A short film using a mixture of live action and Final Cut Pro animation following the life of a man who one day, in the middle of a presentation, feels his soul leaving his body. His strange after-life without a soul, acting much as if nothing had changed, and discovering in the end that Dante was right, about the ice at least. Based on a short story by David Constantine.