BAFTA-winning Filmmaker at Bayview, Oxwich to explore Gower Soundscapes
Artists, photographers, musicians and creatives have long been inspired by Gower’s unique sense of place. Filmmaker and Film Director, Rupert Miles is just one of many whose work is born in Gower. He recently chose to make Tŷ Megan – one of Bayview’s luxury rental properties – his home from home after moving back from Bristol to Gower, the place he feels he truly belongs.
Rupert is an award-winning Filmmaker and Film Director. For over twenty-five years he’s been directing some of the UK’s most popular television programmes such as Countryfile (which he brings to Gower on a regular basis), Comic Relief and Children in Need. But it was his move to sound-editing that won him a BAFTA in 1996 for the BBC1 mini-series, Family, starring Kate Winslet and Christopher Eccleston.
It’s not surprising that his career has enabled him to travel the world; but it’s Gower that kept calling him. And now that he’s back permanently in the place where his early childhood memories were made, it’s Gower itself which is the central character in the increasing number of films Rupert is making and directing himself, in which Gower’s powerful soundscape is ever-present.
For example, Beneath the Tides, Rupert’s first short film located in Gower, uses recorded sounds of the sea and the natural environment as raw material to translate a deeper understanding of a world that we, as listeners, are sometimes not fully attuned to. It was winner at the Cork Film Festival for best sound design.
Then there’s The Collector of Sounds whose innovative film treatment won funding from Ffilm Cymru and is now ready for production with talk of Oxwich having a starring role!
Hot on its heels is a short film Out the Sands which uses the evocative soundscape of Gower’s northern Loughor Estuary to explore memory, the cockling industry, environmental issues and much more!
All Rupert’s films use the sounds he records in the field as an integral part of the narrative: deepening understanding by listening to the soundscape, as well as seeing the breath-taking landscapes and seascapes which we sometimes take for granted,
When you’re out and about in Gower, you can immerse yourself in its soundscape the way Rupert does. You’ll hear the sounds of the sea, the bulrushes swaying in the wind, fences rattling, wires humming, the call of the sea-birds, the bubbles on the surface of rock pools and the pops of dried mud as the sea retreats. You can live and breathe the very essence of Gower’ s acoustic. You only have to linger long enough and feel its pulse.
We chatted to Rupert about Gower’s soundscape and asked him for some recommendations we could pass onto our guests here at Bayview, Oxwich. This is what he told us:
Explore the sound and space of north Gower in the woods at Cwm Ivy. Hear the trees sigh and the fences sing.
Listen to the voices of the past at the castles of Weobley, Pennard and of course, here at Oxwich where you can see the castle from Bayview.
Marvel at the force of the surging sea through the blow holes at the tip of Worm’s Head and at Culver Hole.
Swim underwater at Oxwich or Langland and immerse yourself in another world.
We feel privileged that Rupert has chosen one of our luxury rental properties here at Bayview to carry out his research. We are learning so much from him. We hope his insights open up another aspect of Gower that will entice you to come and stay with us when the time is right.
Meanwhile, you can read all about what Rupert is up to by following him on Twitter @DogboltFilms
“Gower is my poetic muse, my mistress, simply the place I come to for my soul and my creativity. It feeds me.”
Rupert Miles, Film Director