Zen and Art of Sandcastles

Zen and the art of Sandcastles is a short photofilm created during one of duckrabbit’s training courses in Bristol 2009.

It’s a meditation on love and loss, and a reminder to all of us that sometimes the real art is in letting go.

(To view CLICK on the image below, wait for the video to load and then CLICK again to play)

For details of duckrabbit’s training click here.

Read on for a write up of the training.

duckrabbit photofilm training, Trinity Arts Centre, July 209

“It was like being a proper journalist again …. turning up in a town you’ve never been to and not being allowed to leave until you’ve got a story.“

In July 2009 duckrabbit ran its first multimedia training course at the Trinity Arts Centre, in Bristol, England.

We threw our two students right in at the deep end, unleashing them on the British seaside town of Weston super Mare.  We gave them one day to sniff out a story, collect the photographs and audio, and another day to rough edit the material.

“When we went to Weston super-Mare with duckrabbit we had no idea of what we’d come out with, but there’s little more satisfying in that situation than pulling something out of the bag.

After a wander around the town centre to weigh up subject potential, we agreed a plan of action and with the help of Benjamin and David each did our thing. After just a few hours we returned home with  a huge sense of achievement and the raw material for this finished piece.” Ciara Leeming.

The finished resultis a powerful, evocative and warm meditation on loss. We also hope it shows what magic can happen through training, as well as the undoubted talents of our trainees.

What our students Ciara and Oliver have to say about the training:

‘Thanks again for a great weekend, I was thinking the other day that it is well worth the money as I learned so much more than I would have done on any other form of photographic/software/audio training. I have been having lots of ideas to use it commercially.

I will stay in contact and give you guys a ring from time to time if that OK, also if there is any work or help training, or recommendations, or photographs you want me to do, I will be happy to oblige if I can get the time off work as I really think duckrabbit and multimedia is going to take off and I would like to be one of the original photographers working on high quality multimedia in the UK.‘ Oliver Edwards, Photographer.

‘I’m really pleased to have been one of the first to learn from duckrabbit because I love what they’re about and would love to capture even a tiny bit of that spirit in my own work. Audio interviewing was probably the biggest challenge for me but I’m now actually looking forward to integrating this into my own storytelling and being able to make my subjects’ voices heard.‘ Ciara Leeming, Freelance Journalist

For more information about duckrabbit’s training just give us a shout.