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Life is a Scream in the Face of a Bright Madness - A Short Film of The Life of Richard Shaver |
There is now a dedicated site for this subject which includes a film script, downloadable short movie and more. Go here.
An offshoot of Ancient Records, Ancient Films, came into existence
with the ambient film 'No People Here'(Colour/40 mins) by Memory Cells
shot and edited by Stephen Rennicks during 2000. However this was not the
first film Stephen was responsible for. In 1999 a film entitled 'Last Night
of Phunk City:A Clubbers View'(Colour/80 mins) was completed and was again
an almost solo effort.
'Life is a Scream in the Face of a Bright
Madness'(Colour/23 mins) is a short documentary style film about US science
fiction writer and cult personality Richard
Shaver. Barry Kavangh,
of Dacianos, acts as Shaver and introduces his theories, we then follow
the director as he investigates local legends related to Shaver subjects. This
is a non music related project, although it may be of interest that the intro
and outro musical scores credited to The Innishfree Dis-Orchestra is a
collaboration between Stephen and Barry.
A very brief outline of Richard Shavers story.
Richard Shaver belived
he had heard the thougths of an evil race of being called the Dero that
lived beneath the Earth in huge caverns. He contacted Ray Palmer, the editor
of Amazing Stories magazine in the 1940s and had his stories edited as science
fiction. The rest of his life was dedicated to making people aware of the terror
that lay beneath our very feet, he died in the 70s.
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Stephen Rennicks and Barry Kavanagh on location |
On location |
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Postscript
I've been putting this off far too long. Maybe it's better
done now as the final edit was completed in the last few days. I now have a total
awareness of what the viewer will see and more importantly what we don't want
them to see.
I had been to the location about three months before the
shoot. It was at my companions insistence that we locate the dry canal featured
on a tourist map of the area that I found myself walking along the dry bed of
this very mysterious local feature. The fact that it was man-made and the sense
of being in a very unnatural environment was mesmerising. You could see the direction
the current had taken by the way the moss was growing on the stones. I was full
of wonder and felt like an exploring carefree kid again. We followed it back into
the town as we'd had trouble getting down its steep banks and had walked along
the road which followed high above till we found a way down. I remember definetely
wanting to come back with a camera to capture a sense of it. To jump ahead a bit,
that was'nt a great idea, coming back to something you really enjoyed once expecting
to experience the same kind of emotion never works. I usually don't revisit as
a rule, I must have new experiences, so by the stage we got to do the scenes at
the canal I was irritable and full of doubt, we barely walked past the first bend,
I had no interest in being somewhere I'd already been and was too consumed in
the film making process to enjoy it again.
Barry and I have taken many
trips together, I met him on one, in London in 1994. This time he wanted to visit
the gardens of a stately home and also a natural forest for details to aid writing
his latest novel. It was my idea to do a film while we were there, although my
original idea was for some grand philosopical piece, he came up with the idea
of doing one about Richard Shaver. He knew we shared an interest in the man and
we quickly decided to go with it. The title was also Barrys idea, a quote from
Shaver we never did find the context for, although I have my own interpretation
of it now. It was to be the first time we were to collaborate on anything artistic
and I knew where we would have easy access to the things he wanted to see in addition
to what I hoped would be the perfect backgrounds to the film. In addition to the
location having all these things it was also riddled with cave systems. Why do
you think the canal was dry?, it had never been sealed sufficiently to stop it
draining into the caves below. It was only when I started to do some research
that I uncovered the legends that go with the caves, once we had this information
there really was only one way the film could go.
After alot of thought
it was decided not to reveal the location of the film. Basically if people are
interested and do a little detective work they'll find out where we are. The film
exists very well without disclosing that information, although it will not take
a genius to work out where we are. You can give people too much information anyway,
I like it when I have to work things out for myself. Also, if we name the area
people will be less inclined to believe in the film as the naming will leave it
too gounded in fact for people to believe anything of the kind could be there.
We realised while we were doing it that people might think the whole thing was
a hoax, that we'd even made up Richard Shaver. Let me assure people this is a
true documentary, it may be how we see it but there are no lies. Quite frankly
if we had been working in fiction we would have done a better film, we were constricted
by telling the story of Shaver and in the second half could only react and document
where are investigations took us. One of the sentences from a scene explains our
angle on truth, "Richard Saver told the truth as he saw it," we're telling the
truth as we see it.
I was in America a week before embarking on the
film and planned to find time to write down ideas and do more researh, by coincidence
I was in Detroit, where Shaver was living when he first heard the voices from
the cavern world. The angle I was researching was largely not followed up when
we got together and the collaboration process took hold. The route I was coming
from is important though to understanding aspects of the hollow earth tradition.
I was aware that the most ancient roots of stories of underground civilisations
lay in the occult. Check Bulwer Lytton's The Coming Race, Trevour Ravenscroft's
The Spear of Destiny, Warren Smith's This Hollow Earth and Dr. Raymond Bernard's
The Hollow Earth and relevant references in occult tome The Secret Doctrine, I
did and it disturbed the hell out of me. At one point I hoped Barry would never
ask about the film again as I felt if the Dero were real surely they would know
what we were up to and target us with their rays and finish us. After our study
of the subject, whatever we understood as regards where Shaver had come up with
his story we knew it was not from the occult. Although in the final joint brain
storming session just before we started to shoot I was still rereading passages
from certain occult sources, hoping something might finally click. Alas, it did
not, I only succeeded in leaving myself in a very dark place as we left to go.
I remember making the film now in flashes, wiping blood off Barrys forehead
as he lay on the forest floor and feeling nauseous; arriving at the dry canal
full of doubt, thinking we were wasting our time; looking up from a meal and a
wave of depression hitting as I realised I had to return to reality the next day;
satisfaction(at last), knowing we'd done the job as we trudged, soaked, back to
the car after last scene at cave entrance. I remember at one point, weak with
hunger, we retreated to a nearby pub for a meal and noticed a long slash in the
leather bench we were on. Later that night in another bar we again found ourselves
sitting on the handiwork of the slasher, once tapped up and now a thick strip
of black scum of collected dust and fibres. Next a gang of drunken, rowdy male
youths walked in dressed as clowns and Barry remarked it was all getting a bit
Clockwork Orange so we left fast as one demanded the trad band give up their instruments
and explained over the mic that this was ok as they were local! The clowns tied
in with a line from the film and also in the same bar there was a framed picture
of a clowns face, too many coincidences. About half an hour into shooting, for
a few seconds I remember completely losing myself in the work of erecting a tripod
and framing a shot. Its called losing yourself in the creative moment, it does'nt
happen very often. Its a feeling way beyond just being aware of your actions,
for a short time you become automatic. Its a moment you don't forget.
As a child I often played in the ditch across the road from my house, it had a
strange attraction for me. It does'nt seem so impressive now of course, as I grew
older and taller it looked a dirty and rather shallow place to have had adventures
and hideouts. I still have that interest in what lies just beyond the edge of
the road though, what the motorist never sees, its still a place of mystery for
me. Its very fitting therefore that so many of the locations in the film lie just
off the road, I hope after this insight they still retain that mysterious quality
for the viewer, but its amazing what lies behind hedges and grass banks. The fate
of the work is still in our hands but ultimately in yours. I personally hope someone
might see it in 20 years time and wonder if theres any truth to it. Stephen Rennicks
/Director 22/10/00
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