Ideally, I'd like the text to appear on screen gradually in chunks, with visual backgrounds/contexts. If you look at the Bridge of Sighs in Venice... If you look at the Bridge of Sighs in Venice, it does look just like a white lace mask. I'd like the 'camera' to approach the Bridge of Sighs... go through the 'eyeholes'/windows, (or just fade through if that's too hard)... move over a view of San Marco showing the cluster of domes on the top... Santa Maria della Salute next... then down the grand canal... then down the grand canal as they are mentioned in the poem, with the text being gradually revealed canal as they are mentioned in the poem, with the text being gradually revealed. For the last half of the first stanza... For the last half of the first stanza, it would be nice to blend from a big frock, e.g. one of Francis Blake's... ...into a building... ...into a mask... ...then pan out to the city again... ...and the canals and gondolas as they are mentioned too.

Big Frocks

Top party city? Not Rio, not Newcastle, but Venice,
 A centuries-long ballo en maschera. Look through
 The lace mask of the Bridge of Sighs, at the boned
Bodices and crinolined cupolas of San Marco,
 Santa Maria della Salute's hooped skirt. The city
Is a party! Down the Grand Canal's blue carpet,
Every palazzo is a big, Oscar-night frock, gilded
Pink and peach, taffeta and tulle, voile and velvet;
 White braid balusters, windowbox corsages. Trailing
Muddied hems with superb aplomb, these shameless
Beauties carry their peeling stucco like finest
Devoré. What is a dress, but a mask for the body?
 What is a building, but a mask for the many? Mists
Of chiffon veil the canals,  steel-sharp gondolas pin
Their satin ribbons. Bells swing their shining skirts,
Dancing music over the city like glitter dust.



Return to Commissions Home PageBig Frocks text © Valerie Laws, 2004.
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Picture credits