Painting the Town... (2018)

Painting the Town explores the origin of the phrase “Painting the Town Red” which has historical roots in the town of Melton Mowbray, one night in 1837, the Marquis of Waterford and his men whilst drunk caused mayhem throughout the town, with a few of the men literally taking brushes with red paint to part of the town. Also inspired by the ending of High Plains Drifter (1973) dir. Clint Eastwood, which sees a violent ghostly figure played by Clint Eastwood manipulate a town into doing his bidding. Ultimately advising them to paint the town red. Taking this as starting point and the newspaper accounts of the violence in Melton, which by today’s standards are exaggerated. Compared with the violence found over in America’s lawless Wild West. Focusing on the violence of the frontier America as depicted in the Western. I have chosen 4 films that have violent scenes. The sets of those scenes have been built into white model miniatures paired with the reaction of violent acts to the victims are projected into. Focusing on the effect of the violence, not the act which is often glamorised in film