Parklife for young film-maker
A FILM-MAKING student is showcasing his work at Dinefwr Park’s new Green Hub space in Llandeilo.
Josh Knight had the opportunity to show his work at Dinefwr after producing a film as part of his coursework.
Students had to identify a person, group, or organisation that they believed were making a positive change for the better.
As Josh, who is studing for a BA in BA adventure film-making started the preparation work for his film, he immediately thought of Dinefwr Park as a location, because it is home to some of the most beautiful scenery and buildings in Carmarthenshire.
The University of Wales Trinity Saint David student chose to collaborate with the park team to look at how they use trees and nature within the grounds to raise awareness around climate change issues.
Josh, originally from Winchester in Hampshire, was instantly inspired to capture the amazing wildlife and nature within the grounds and said: “The subject I chose to focus on, was the famous Castle Oak tree, located just at the bottom of the hill leading up to the castle.
“This tree holds significant importance to the grounds of Dinefwr, it hosts a variety of plants and foliage as well as being a hotspot to find a range of wildlife.
“The tree is over 800 years old, which in itself is a fantastic story to tell.”
Josh began his film-making process by watching previous nature documentaries on similar subjects for inspiration.
His main influence came from the BBC television series The Green Planet.
He loved how the series captured the audience’s attention in the most inspirational of ways by looking at plants that people walk past every day.
Despite a positive start to the project, he still faced many challenges along the way, the main hurdle being bad weather, which he ultimately turned to his advantage.
Josh said: “I only had a certain number of days in which I could film at the location, and unfortunately, on most of these days, it decided to pour it down with rain.
“I used the stormy weather to create a sense of atmosphere within my film and use it to point out how the change in climate can affect the wildlife in the area, but also the positive the rain brings to the surrounding environment as a whole.
“The rain ended up becoming a large part of my film, showing that the hurdles we may face as film-making may actually end up working in our favour.”
This opportunity for Josh to display his work at Dinefwr has been invaluable and he said: “Having my work shown in the new Green Hub space located at the grounds of Dinefwr is a huge honour, it was an absolute pleasure working with the team here and producing this film for them.
“It’s a brilliant and humbling feeling knowing that members of the public are viewing my work and admiring the time and effort put into a project, especially one like this that is so important to both myself and the local community.”
Kathryn Campbell, National Trust programming and partnerships officer for Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion, said: “We are delighted to be able to showcase Josh’s film in our newly refurbished visitor building.
“Josh’s film was particularly appropriate, and we’re delighted to be able to include it as part of our visitor’s introduction and orientation of the Dinefwr estate.”