'Horribly hypnotic and unnervingly beautiful, the Apocalyptic assault of Creation is made impulsive and frightening and pure in Yoav Segal’s adaptation of Ted Hughes’ seminal cycle of poems, CROW...' Hannah Clarkson, Take One
CROW is a short film I produced and directed featuring Ted Hughes reading what he considered his career masterpiece CROW poems - a dark reworking of the Genesis story. It grew out of projections I designed for a play directed by Mervyn Millar and designed by Holly Waddington, who established much of the aesthetic. The incredible music was composed by the Mercury Nominated and all-round polymath Leafcutter John. The film had a brilliant run at international film festivals including Encounters, Cinequest, Zinebi, Foyle, Mecal, Edinburgh McClaren Awards, L'Etrange, Tate Modern and more.
It's all time-lapse footage shot in camera and mirrored. There's no VFX or trickery. Best watched with headphones.
---
CROW - Written and Read by Ted Hughes
Producer / Director - Yoav Segal
Assistant Director - Alasdair Beckett-King
Composer - Leafcutter John
Theatrical Concept - Mervyn Millar
Art Director - Holly Waddington
Animators - Yoav Segal, Alasdair Beckett King, Nandita Jain, Aindri Chakraborty
Model Maker / Ideas Machine - Daisy Popham
Studio-mate - Zach Walker
Colourist - Ross Birkbeck / Singer Street
Sound Mix - Seb Juliver / SNK Studios
DCP conversion - Onsight
Story Consultant - Mikey Please
Project Consultant - Heather O’Connell
Thanks - Wessen Jazrawi, Simon Paul, Toby Trackman
The material started life as part of the Handspring UK theatrical production ‘CROW’.
Director - Mervyn Millar
Composer - Leafcutter John
Dramaturg - Matthew Dunster
Designer - Holly Waddington
Choreographer - Ben Duke
Lighting Designer - Lucy Carter
Handspring Executive Director - Natasha Bucknor
Producer - Matthew Jones
Production Manager - Ben Payne
“The Door,” “Crow’s Vanity,” and “Crow Hears Fate Knock on the Door” from ‘Collected Poems’ by Ted Hughes. Copyright © 2003 by The Estate of Ted Hughes. Used by permission of Faber and Faber Ltd and Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
With thanks to Carol Hughes, Emma Cheshire at Faber and Faber and Victoria Fox at FSG.
Music © Leafcutter John 2014
© Yoav Segal / Atime Productions MMXIV
