Final Proposal - RAF Harrow-beer 1941-45
For my Final Major Project, I am proposing to create a historical documentary on Harrowbeer Airfield, Yelverton, Devon. I plan to collect a variety of stills, archive footage, articles, postcards, illustrations, maps etc. in order to compel a coherent story which outlines the history of Harrowbeer, a second world war airbase.
I plan to collect footage and images of the layout of the base including Knightstone, Ravenscroft, Air-raid shelters, Dispersal Pens, Control Tower, Pundit Code, Runways etc. I also plan to utilize diagrams and props to re-create wartime, re-enhanced by the costume design and colour palette.
The process for the film is going to still be the same three stages that I addressed in the basic proposal. I plan to collect as much information on the station that I can, working closely alongside 'Harrowbeer Archives', where I plan to list down key events, squadrons, famous visitors, layout, defenses, equipment, types of aircraft etc.
The second part of the process will be to plan a storyboard and a shot list, as well as experimenting with different cinematic techniques and editing styles, watching existing documentaries on world war 2 and biographical films on famous visitors has certainly helped to narrow down my expectations.
The main theme of my documentary will be 'Then and Now', I plan to find archive footage, postcards or stills of the airfield during its inception, then I plan to re-visit the site and shoot from the same angle to show the remains of buildings, land and show the progression of time. I want to create a short film that shows the past in contrast to the present.
A particular effect that I want my film to utilize is going to use a high level of opaque layers, placing over the top of each other will enable myself to superimpose an RAF officer into the frame. I plan to use this quite a lot of buildings, character placement, camera movement etc.
I hope to either compose a track or collab with a local music producer who can generate an orchestral period piece of music that can have the ability to be looped throughout my film. Ideally, I would like to have more than 1 track so as to add to the intensity of the film, I have always enjoyed editing my films to the beat of music but I'm going to step this up, trying out a different editing technique.
I plan to use a drone or GoPro, ideally, I would like to create a rig so as my camera could be mounted on the bonnet of my car as I want to re-create the taxi-ing of a plane along the runway. I managed to capture footage of a Spitfire in flight last summer at the 1940's event, this particular aircraft was flown from Harrowbeer during its inception.
I plan to collect footage from the annual events that take place, I shot quite a lot during the summer of 2017 as I wanted to prepare myself for the film, understanding how I could develop existing events within a historical documentary.
I have been steering towards the idea of lighting up the defenses, using light panels or just by using torches and candles to really enhance the landscape and interior of buildings.
Once the film has been created, I am planning to give a copy to the Harrowbeer archives for a small fee for helping create, with the possibility of it being featured on a screen at the Harrowbeer event of 2018 in August and for future events also. It shall educate like-minded individuals on the airfield and entertain a wide demographic through a well thought of historical documentary. ​​