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Title: FALLS THE SHADOW

Reference number: 5564

Date: 1957*

Director: d. Edward McConnell and Laurence Henson

Production company: [ IFA Scotland]

Sound: sound

Original format: 16mm

Colour: bw

Fiction: fiction

Running time: 14.31 mins

Description: An experimental piece, following the fortunes of a man who falls off castle ramparts and finds himself on an eerie beach experiencing strange phenomena. The main themes seem to be death and chance.

Credits: with John McKerrall and Jeanette Paterson
rhythm section Andy Park, Jimmy Galloway, Ronnie Sandford, George Wilson
sd. rec. John Fletcher
sc. ph. ed. d. by Edward McConnell and Laurence Henson

Shotlist: [shotlisted from viewing print]

opening shot of potters wheel (0.24) title and credits (1.30) exts ruined castle and shot of man walking alongside moat, he tosses a coin and decides to scale castle walls, even though there is a 'Climbing Prohibited' sign; intercut with brief flash shots of a boat's bow racing along water (6.56) after peering over edge of wall, the man falls- this is intercut with flash shots of boat stopping abruptly and bowl breaking; after landing on sand [slow motion] he stands motionless while there are quick cuts to rocks, a dead bird in a tree [varying camera angles including upside down] (9.34) the man walks along beach, covering his eyes in pain from time to time, finishes with him covering his ears in a frenzy (9.55) shot of a woman in dark flowing clothes sitting on beach, the man walks away (the two never acknowledge one another); shot of man picking up a broken glass sand timer and struggling in vain to stop sand running out (10.55) c/u hands [various angles] (11.04) woman picks sand timer up, mends it; c/u bowl being repaired (11.47) shot of man walking on beach, he pushes tree with dead bird in it over (12.32) c/u man's face as he falls backwards, c/u coin (12.50) c/u man's face (dead?) (12.59) man and woman walk along beside castle, and look at dead man's face, they are side by side but apparently do not acknowledge one another (14.14) c/u boat's bow and broken bowl (14.30) THE END (14.31)