OLD WORLD GARDEN

The preceeding pages show a modern urban backcloth which concentrated more on the townscape outside than the actual garden, leaving the youngsters to "people" the garden and bring it to life. Also with a deliberate large acreage of sky for the various atmosphere effects the script requires.

But what if I ignore what is happening outside the garden gate and instead turned the garden in on itself into a courtyard and gave it an 'olde worldy' charm with exciting barns and sheds to explore? And give Nan and Grandad a bit of cash and a leg up in the world.

So here's my alternative pencil sketch of such a garden. This building would look marvelous in the night sequences with the diamond windows lit; light spilling across the lawns; and the church in the background floodlit. All perhaps too ambitious, even as an example, for schools?

I feel somehow Grandpa would have been the local vicar with his cottage garden full of lupins. Lightening flashing behind those tall chimneys would look like something from Psycho. Great.

Hey we could sell my finished painting of this "Courtyard in Daylight Scene One" to a chocolate box manufacturer! But I would have to straighten the knackered sheds on the left. Makes the viewer seasick.