I am no film expert, that should be said. Certainly not films of the last 25 years. I’d have a good stab at Films of the 1990s as my specialist subject on Mastermind, but anything beyond that would be a stretch. So, what follows comes very much with that proviso.
But I’m sure at some point in the recent past there was experimentation to try to make films more interactive, more sensory. Obviously, we’ve had 3D glasses to make the images leap away from the flat screen and surround sound to enable you to hear the Millennium Falcon literally fly past you. And I have in my mind also an attempt to engage audiences with the other senses too.
The detail of this is sketchy and this is where I could very well be making this up. But was there a Jaws film - or another action adventure set in the ocean - where the audience in the front row of the movie theatre were sprayed with water so they could get a more sensory experience of being at sea? And were there films at one point where scents were sprayed into cinemas to accompany what the audience was watching on the screen?
Film makers have the same problems as writers. When something tastes, smells or feels so beautiful - or so horrible - how do you convey that to your audience?
This may sound like the beginning of a lecture for first year Filmmaking students, but actually this is still the Nutsford House blog. So, bringing it back to that …
The question for me is how do I convey the sensory experience of being outside at Nutsford House to you, the reader? And I very much want to do this as, if you hadn’t realised, the Bed and Breakfast rooms are very much open now. We have had our first guests (who were lovely, by the way), we have cooked our first breakfasts, changed our first lot of sheets and we are now very keen for more guests to come and experience this place.
So, how do I convey the beauty of this place to you?
At the moment, Nature is providing us with a trailer for the coming Spring. There is blossom appearing on a couple of trees, there are daffodils and primroses both in the gardens and the woods. The next few months will undoubtedly be spectacular with what is about to come out.
The birds are becoming more active too, building nests. And new species are appearing as well. We’ve recently spotted treecreepers and bullfinches for the first time.
I could send you pictures of all this, of course. And we will. We’ll be posting Spring photos on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
But what I can’t do is come into your house and play audio of the early morning birdsong or the water babbling in the stream or the owls hooting in the early evening or the lambs bleating in the field next door.
Neither can I send you in the post the aroma of the wild garlic growing in the woods.
Just like being sprayed with water by an 18 year old working his first job in a cinema complex, the sensation of reading about these experiences just doesn’t quite do it. I know that and I’m sorry.
You’ll just have to come and feel it all for yourself.
And if you’re thinking this sounds a bit like a long advertisement for Nutsford House, you’re probably right. But we really think the Spring will be fabulous here and we really want to share it with people.
You can even bring that pair of 3D glasses you got from watching Jaws 3D at the cinema in the 1980s … though you won’t need them!
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