My interest in film is as a documentarian.
Whilst I use film to illustrate performances on stage, or to accompany text, I am also looking to find ways in which the images can reveal something that isn't spoken.
A great example of this is the project 'Northern' by Maja Bugge, a Lancaster-based Cellist. The project looks at the sounds and responses created by different places in the North. I was tasked to create my own collage and response, visually.
Here's a trailer of that work that combines some of the elements:
I also look to film as a way of making other forms accessible. At the start of 2020 I worked with artist and writer Jo Bannon to make a series of videos in a form we call 'assisted listening' where the subititles take the form of the work as much as is possible, lessening the need for hearing impaired audience members to have to choose beteween expereincing a work visually and reading the text. The work, Absent Tense was shown at HOME Manchester.
I have also made some longer format film work to support my writing. As the result of a year long residency at the Institute of Biomedical and Environmental Sciences in Luton, I created this film, EX VIVO, along with Gillian Jane Lees.
We also made a film of our live art performance Au, which was shown in ilm festivals across Europe.
Music videos, theatre shows, academic confrences, science, video games and strange experiements around the idea of duration... all of these things link together through animation.
Over the last 10 years I've worked on around 100 different projects that have used animation in some form.
Here's a small selection of some of my favourites:
Made in collaboration with proto-type theatre, A Dangerous Thing is part of the Truth To Power series of performances.
A music video for the North West-based musician and producer Deadbear, using hacked spritesets from a Nintendo classic.
An animated lecture, written and narrated by Bronislaw Szerszynski of Lancaster University.
An animated short, written and narrated by Alex kelly of Third Angel.
Another music video, for Lancaster band, Deep Cabaret.