Poetry and Process for Cradle of Fire

Having written the first three poems, I realised one of the challenges as a writer is conveying the complex story of Vulcan using minimal text that will be appropriate for the short film. The audience needs room to take in the words and visuals equally, without feeling overwhelmed by one or the other.

I made a decision to write poems that stand on their own without the film, then look at how I could condense and adapt them for the screen narrative. Some of the narrative comprises straight excerpts, in other cases I’ve had to change the odd word from the poem. Geometric form and use of space is important to poetry on the page, but when superimposed on moving images, this can’t be the case. An entirely new way of thinking for the placing of the (very) pared down words has to take place.

An example of condensing and contraction can be seen in our ‘Cradle of Fire’ film trailer. The words ‘boy’ and ‘crooked leg’ are taken from the first poem in the Vulcan sequence, ember.

The last stanza of the poem reads,

a boy with a crooked leg
who sees possibilities

The last line of the poem has been summarised, rightly or wrongly, in the trailer with the word ‘imagination’.

Film Trailer Cradle of Fire Still – Imagination Photo Credit D.Scarborough

A little later in the trailer the word ‘heat’ appears pulsing. This is from the poem forge
the second half of which, on the page, is as follows,

heat
hammer

heat
hammer

he bends

shapes

The word ‘hammer’ has been removed. The phrase ‘he bends’ follows the word ‘heat’, the pulsing technique used for this word replacing the idea of repetition in the poem. ‘Shapes’ has been removed altogether – but may be introduced for the full film. A concern is that the words will bear any resemblance to poetry by the end of the process. You the audience will have to be the judge of that!

Film Trailer Cradle of Fire Still – Forge  Photo Credit: D. Scarborough

Blog by Carolyn Waudby