Bonehill Films presents: GWENEVERE
I'm so excited to say that this film made by Philip Reeve and Sarah Reeve - GWENEVERE - is now available to watch online!! Here's the poster I made for it:
Gwenevere had screenings at Chagford Film Fest, The Bookery in Crediton and at Torquay Museum, and now you can watch it here on YouTube:
I was joking with Philip about doing a commentary edition, Gwenevere: the Caterer's Cut, or even Gwenevere: the Annoying Version, where you'd get me piping up every few seconds to say, 'Hey, those are my shields!', 'I made that little woodland figure thingy!', 'There's Alan Lee!', etc.
Making the film was so much fun, it really brought together a community of people for a short time, and everyone put so much into it. Here's a drawing I made where you can even see my parents helping Stuart and me feed the whole crew for four days, sometimes as many as fifteen people. Plus we made extra sandwiches and cake for the thatchers working on the house next-door to the medieval barn where Philip and Sarah were filming most of the indoor scenes.
I also made this woodland shrine figure out of Sculpey clay, and Philip added all the colour, texture, moss and little amulet charms.
But my favourite thing to make were the shields. Philip cut and shaped them, and then handed the over to me to add colour and heraldry, and I swear, it's some of the most fun I've ever had, painting those. This was Philip's original concept sketch:
And I'll go through some of the shields! Eventually they had to say, 'Sarah! You can stop making shields now!' as I would've happily continued doing so forevermore. I think this owl shield is everyone's favourite. It's hanging right now up in my studio at Bovey Paradiso:
This shield's also hanging up in my studio, it's one of the first ones I made. One of the most fun things was roughing them up to make them look like they'd been used and then spent time weathering on a tree. With this one, the sandpaper took a big line right through the middle of the rabbit's eye, which scared me a bit at first (had I ruined it?), and then I decided it's what made it really work.
After the mer-rabbit, I distressed this dragon shield even more roughly:
There are quite a few funny snails in illuminated manuscripts, so I tried one out:
And some of them got quite ornate:
With this horse shield, I started to worry it was all going a bit too Greek-looking, but I still really liked how it came out. (And hey, there could've been some medieval shield painter who was very inspired by Greek art, you never know...) To get the texture, I think I might have thrashed this one with a chain, as well as sandpaper.
This shield was intended to be the young knight Sir Ruan's, but the cartoonish lion was a bit distracting, and in the end, he carried a shield with a more abstract pattern. (I was pleased to see this shield showing up again in the local panto!)
Here I am painting the shield that Sir Ruan ended up carrying:
I think this shield might have been at least partly inspired by The Bookery in Crediton; I helped with their rebranding and shopfront logo, which features three rooks. Another one that showed up in the local panto.
Philip decided he didn't want me to rough up this shield, and it ended up, not on the tree, but over the fireplace in the barn.
The farmer who owns the barn - Cat Frampton - liked it so much that she ended up keeping it.
I hope you like watching the film! Do share it, if you enjoy it! I love a scene on the moor, right near the beginning, with a pinky sky and Sarah Reeve and her friends Jane and Marilyn singing a beautiful period-appropriate song composed by Brian Mitchell. Oh, and another scene where Isabel and her mum Rachel just happened to be singing a song they knew while they were putting on their costumes, and it was so beautiful that Sarah and Philip recorded it. They layered it with some beautiful scenes from the barn; Tessa looks just like an old-masters painting. And Laura's daughter putting on a too-big-for-her helmet, Alan herding sheep... Okay, I'll save the rest of my EXTENSIVE COMMENTARY for later on the special Annoying Cut, just go watch it!
Gwenevere had screenings at Chagford Film Fest, The Bookery in Crediton and at Torquay Museum, and now you can watch it here on YouTube:
Click to viewI was joking with Philip about doing a commentary edition, Gwenevere: the Caterer's Cut, or even Gwenevere: the Annoying Version, where you'd get me piping up every few seconds to say, 'Hey, those are my shields!', 'I made that little woodland figure thingy!', 'There's Alan Lee!', etc.
Making the film was so much fun, it really brought together a community of people for a short time, and everyone put so much into it. Here's a drawing I made where you can even see my parents helping Stuart and me feed the whole crew for four days, sometimes as many as fifteen people. Plus we made extra sandwiches and cake for the thatchers working on the house next-door to the medieval barn where Philip and Sarah were filming most of the indoor scenes.
I also made this woodland shrine figure out of Sculpey clay, and Philip added all the colour, texture, moss and little amulet charms.
But my favourite thing to make were the shields. Philip cut and shaped them, and then handed the over to me to add colour and heraldry, and I swear, it's some of the most fun I've ever had, painting those. This was Philip's original concept sketch:
And I'll go through some of the shields! Eventually they had to say, 'Sarah! You can stop making shields now!' as I would've happily continued doing so forevermore. I think this owl shield is everyone's favourite. It's hanging right now up in my studio at Bovey Paradiso:
This shield's also hanging up in my studio, it's one of the first ones I made. One of the most fun things was roughing them up to make them look like they'd been used and then spent time weathering on a tree. With this one, the sandpaper took a big line right through the middle of the rabbit's eye, which scared me a bit at first (had I ruined it?), and then I decided it's what made it really work.
After the mer-rabbit, I distressed this dragon shield even more roughly:
There are quite a few funny snails in illuminated manuscripts, so I tried one out:
And some of them got quite ornate:
With this horse shield, I started to worry it was all going a bit too Greek-looking, but I still really liked how it came out. (And hey, there could've been some medieval shield painter who was very inspired by Greek art, you never know...) To get the texture, I think I might have thrashed this one with a chain, as well as sandpaper.
This shield was intended to be the young knight Sir Ruan's, but the cartoonish lion was a bit distracting, and in the end, he carried a shield with a more abstract pattern. (I was pleased to see this shield showing up again in the local panto!)
Here I am painting the shield that Sir Ruan ended up carrying:
I think this shield might have been at least partly inspired by The Bookery in Crediton; I helped with their rebranding and shopfront logo, which features three rooks. Another one that showed up in the local panto.
Philip decided he didn't want me to rough up this shield, and it ended up, not on the tree, but over the fireplace in the barn.
The farmer who owns the barn - Cat Frampton - liked it so much that she ended up keeping it.
I hope you like watching the film! Do share it, if you enjoy it! I love a scene on the moor, right near the beginning, with a pinky sky and Sarah Reeve and her friends Jane and Marilyn singing a beautiful period-appropriate song composed by Brian Mitchell. Oh, and another scene where Isabel and her mum Rachel just happened to be singing a song they knew while they were putting on their costumes, and it was so beautiful that Sarah and Philip recorded it. They layered it with some beautiful scenes from the barn; Tessa looks just like an old-masters painting. And Laura's daughter putting on a too-big-for-her helmet, Alan herding sheep... Okay, I'll save the rest of my EXTENSIVE COMMENTARY for later on the special Annoying Cut, just go watch it!