Over the last week, I have been very busy sorting out the order for my exhibition and drumming up an audience willing to attend.

There does seem to be a lot of interest from the local community within the project, several who have advised me that they are planning to go to the Otterton screening.

After much deliberation, I have decided on the order for the film, which I hope will give the audience an enjoyable yet informative experience.

It will run as follows :

1. Opening with Rob and the introduction
2. Anthony’s Story
3. The First History of the River – on pre-history – this links well with Anthony’s Story
4. Sam’s Story – focusing on the modern ecology of the river and valley.
5. Fliss’s Story – has a natural link to Sam as she is sat on the river making live observations
6. Charlie’s Story then follows with her recovery from hidden disabilities
7. Kate’s Story – acts to change the films focus into a more informative role. I wanted to bring in gaps between the more emotive works as I feel the audience needs time to digest some of the stories
8. The next history film then follows with details of salt production on the Otter
9. Rosie’s Story then introduces bridges and how the river can act as a great healer
10. Sarah’s Story is then introduced to the audience as a way to bring in a change of direction and light humour
11. Sylvie’s Story then brings the audience back into an environmental link
12. The third history film then introduces the Domesday Book
13. Sheena’s Story then follows with a look at her life long links to rivers
14. History 4 then examins the silting of the river and how this has impacted on its present state
15. Lorraine’s Story then explores her links to sailing on the high seas
16. The fifth history film explores shipbuilding on the river and therefore is a natural link to Lorraine’s Story
17. Liz’s Story then examins her creative inspiration and links to the river and abstract art
18. Dave’s Story then relates the Samuel Taylor Coleridge Poem about the Otter
19. The final piece focuses on the modern climate challenges faced by society. Thus bringing the audience back into the current moment.

This creates a piece of work that is some 1hour 18minutes and is much longer than the planned 45minutes considered at the start of my FMP.

I am left worried that this will be too much for the audience, and yet I am compelled to introduce the audience to all of the stories in the work to experiment with reactions.

I am keen to find out how people will react to observing all of the work in one long stream, instead of an individual set of works as initially considered. My aim is to see if such a single exhibition approach is more effective than the originally planned multi-screen installation idea.

I do feel that there is indeed enough within the film exhibition to reach my initial research question – that being:

Could a local audience learn from my project and how could that learning focus on exploring the metaphorical importance of the river to the local community – through such themes as time, exploration, personal experience and reflection?

I also feel that the visuals used in these works do link in some ways to the Signified of the river as they are mostly of abstract and unusual gazes that generally would go unobserved.

I am quietly confident about my screening, but also very nervous at the same time!