Adaptation B: Idea

Amongst the ideas I had for the Adaptation Part B project, I sort of settled for a French poem written in 1870 and inspired by the Franco-Prussian War (but which could be applied to other time periods too). 

The original text:

A rough translation:

The Sleeper in the Valle

It’s a green hollow, where a stream gurgles

Madly hanging on the grasses tatters

Of silver; where the sun, from the proud mountain,

Glows: it is a little valley that foams with sunrays.

A young soldier, his mouth open, his head bare,

And the nape of his neck bathing in cool blue watercress,

Is resting; he is stretched out on the grass, under the skies,

Pale in his green bed where the light falls like rain.

Feet in the gladiolas, he lies sleeping. Smiling like

A sick child would smile, he is taking a nap:

Nature, rock him warmly: he is cold.

Fragrances do not make his nostrils quiver;

He sleeps in the sun, hand on his chest,

At peace. There are two red holes in his right side.

I intend to model the environment described and the character, as well as position it in such way that the ambiguousness of the poem is preserved. The soldier would thus be inanimate as opposed the hopefully vibrant, lively environment. A series of camera movements will be used to translate the rhythm and narrative progression of the text, leading to the macabre discovery and highlighting the weight of war.

Very early days explorations

After my tutorial on Tuesday, I thought perhaps to make use of the (unfortunately overdone) double exposure technique to link the character and environment poetically eg. the gladiolas appearing in the feet themselves, the two red holes being poppies, etc., though I'm uncertain as to how well that could work (maybe the environment would need to be live action footage to look credible in terms of lighting)

Other approaches

Influence Map