Quatermass, The Prisoner or Bamburgh Beach

[Mike Shimwell]

We spent the weekend away at our caravan in Northumberland and visited Bamburgh beach on Saturday. It was one of those afternoons that are full of light and everything was bright. The beach had quite a few people and the scene and light reminded me of an old Quatermass film where the young flock to ancient sites in small bands only to be consumed by alien powers. There are other films and TV shows from the 60s that included similar themes

Mike

Edited to apologise for the unpleasant signature - I'll have to investigate Lightroom customisation.

 

[nicolas claris]

Edited to apologise for the unpleasant signature - I'll have to investigate Lightroom customisation.

Very nice pic Mike and yes a good reminder!

If you find the way to customise (English!) or customize (American!) LR I'll be, me to, happy to know!

 

[Mike Shimwell]

Hi Nicolas

Thanks for your kind comment. Here is the first frame I shot at this idea, a different crop and the 'Quatermass' effect may be reduced by the loving couple in the foreground, but I finished up liking this too. I put a sligtly different colour beach shot up on a differnt thread also.

Mike

 

[Cem_Usakligil]

Mike,

I like both these images. They are simple but elegant, and I came back a few times today to enjoy the first one you have posted. I'd like to see them on the wall printed to a size of 1.5x1.5 meters.

Cheers,

 

[NC Iphone]

I second Cem , but i prefer the 1st, it is less obvious...

 

[Mike Shimwell]

Cem

Thanks, I'm just preparing a couple of small 20inch wide test prints. If they work out I might even try to make up a big multi panel mural with them...

Watch this space

Mike

 

[Cem_Usakligil]

I second Cem , but i prefer the 1st, it is less obvious...

Yes, agreed

 

[Asher Kelman]

The beach had quite a few people and the scene and light reminded me of an old Quatermass film where the young flock to ancient sites in small bands only to be consumed by alien powers. There are other films and TV shows from the 60s that included similar themes

QUOTE]

Quatermass was a first a TV series, I believe and everyone in the U.K. was rivetted to the very frightening story. One bad thing about it was the idea that "the authorities" kept it secret. It was as if all the fears of Nuclear weapons, from a far away enemy like the Societ Union, were concentrated witin our own community and we were already being consumed.

I think the music was taken from "The Planets", Mars, the God of War.

Asher

 

[RoyVarley]

Asher, I think you're referring to the series starring John Mills which was released in 1979 and called, simply, Quatermass. Nigel Kneale had created three earlier Quatermass series during the 50s - "Quatermass Experiment", "Quatermass II" and "Quatermass and the Pit". I watched a compilation of these released on DVD by the beeb recently. I was amazed to note that I remembered parts of Quatermass Experiment - I couldn't have been around long when I saw it for the first time. Back then, nobody seemed to mind the rocket ships with wooden floors where everything shook as the actors stomped across them!

 

[Ken Tanaka]

Being a movie buff with a sweet tooth for sci-fi and horror of the 50's through the 70's I am well familiar with the Quatermass stuff. I have the British tv series on dvd and also the feature films. They're some of my favorites.

This is an excellent image, Mike. it reminds me of a large photograph shown briefly in the background of a scene from Michelangelo Antonioni's "Blowup". That image appears to be a large bw print of a line of camels (?) walking through a desert distantly across the frame. The image consists simply of two-thirds white sky and one-third white desert sand demarcated by this silhouetted line of camels.

If I was to make any suggestion for your image it would be to crop some of that sky down.

 

[Mike Shimwell]

Hi Ken

Thanks for your comment, and those before. I agree that the picture could do with losing around 10% to 15% from the top. I've also been playing with the lightness of the sky - on paper it is almost entirely uniform and bringing it up nearer to paper white seems to improve the print.

I'll post a picture of a print hanging when I am happy with it.

Mike

 

[Ken Tanaka]

Mike:
By way of illustrating the example I cited earlier...

This Nat Geo image by Carsten Peter is not the image i referenced earlier but it's as close as I could find in a few minutes of searching.

 

[Asher Kelman]

Asher, I think you're referring to the series starring John Mills which was released in 1979 and called, simply, Quatermass. Nigel Kneale had created three earlier Quatermass series during the 50s - "Quatermass Experiment", "Quatermass II" and "Quatermass and the Pit". I watched a compilation of these released on DVD by the beeb recently. I was amazed to note that I remembered parts of Quatermass Experiment - I couldn't have been around long when I saw it for the first time. Back then, nobody seemed to mind the rocket ships with wooden floors where everything shook as the actors stomped across them!

Roy and Ken,

I'm so pleased to find others were imprinted as strongly as myself by these classics. I remember the music. What was the music in the first series and did it continue to the later productions. My experience was prior to 1966. Yes I was a kid but this was almost the equivalent of 911 in how it gripped a nation.

Asher

 

[Asher Kelman]

It was one of those afternoons that are full of light and everything was bright. The beach had quite a few people and the scene and light reminded me of an old Quatermass film where the young flock to ancient sites in small bands only to be consumed by alien powers. There are other films and TV shows from the 60s that included similar themes

Mike,

Yes one could remove some of the top. However could does not meet should here. The extra height adds to the scaling and smallness of the people on the beach. I'd offer a slightly different approach which addresses this empty expanse but also provides a near-field anchor. I'd love to see a bird, maybe a raven, perhaps several.

Of course, this is your picture, but this is how I'd approach the idea projection and also give the image more depth.

Since the concept of the picture is to provide an allegoric interpretation, I'd consider whatever might nudge the image in that direction. A car with the doors wide open and footsteps to the distance would be another effective, but less subtle way of doing that.

Asher

 

[Mike Shimwell]

There is no escape...

 

[Rachel Foster]

I've been returning to this again and again, analyzing what makes it work. This image is extremely helpful to me in understanding the "whys" of "art."