The Demon Barber of Bedminster, by Paul Matson

For the full script, and more Bristol Stories, see BristolStories.org
The story of a Bristol hairdresser who could tell you more than just where they went on their holidays if you ever dared to sit in the chair!
I first read about Charlie Stevens a few years ago while looking into local history. It surprised me that such an amazing individual and his story was not more well-known and celebrated. As I live in Bedminster, I returned to him for my digital story.
In researching the film, I first went out to photograph present-day barbershops in Bedminster. None of these seemed to fit with the story, but other story-makers suggested Mr Swantons in Park Place, Clifton. His shop is full of curious antiques and hairdressing-related artefacts. By a strange coincidence, Mr Swanton happened to have a painting at home of Charles Stevens himself, dating from 1912. This is featured several times in the story and was a fortunate stroke of serendipity.
For the other material in the film, I wanted to experiment with moving image rather than stills. Finding copyright-free material was made easier by the discovery of archive.org, and the large collection of public domain film available to download. The technique was partly inspired by the Adam Curtis series The Power of Nightmares, which used film clips to complement and interpret a spoken, and politically controversial, narrative.
The challenges of finding literal footage for some of the more unusual aspects of the tale forced me to loosen up and be playful. Also, viewers may notice wild historical inaccuracies in the choice of clips which I hope can be forgiven in the pursuit of telling a good story.
Even though I have used applications such as Adobe After Effects and Flash, retricting myself to Apple iMovie (a much more basic editing programme) was helpful in order to concentrate on the story. I also decided against using any transitions to simplify the process even further. Unusally for me, I worked without a drawn storyboard. Working in a group setting was also a first and was great fun and very rewarding.
The story is adapted from www.brisray.com/bristol/bemmy6.htm. Many thanks to Mr Swantons Barber Shop, Clifton, Bristol.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• waterfall
• jumping
• north
• america
• canada
• dangerous
• sports
• extreme
• daring
• brave
• risk
• accident
• killed
• death
• by
• misadventure