'Peripheral'

16mm Scanned Film

(duration 05:08), 2017.

Films are driven by a subject/focus; so what would happen to a Film if you blocked its subject/focus from frame?

The idea came from a conversation I had with a friend, about a Film that she was describing… from what I understood, she was describing a Film where sections of the frame had been blocked off from view. I expressed my excitement at the thought of this concept, however I was told that I had completely misunderstood what was being described to me. Nonetheless, I had already started to consider the pathos of focusing on a Films peripheral image. 

Film captures a framed view of the past; only a glimpse, yet it seemingly contains and immortalises what is in nature transient and fleeting. However, the scratches and degradations of Analogue film reveal their impermanence.

I decided to use analogue Film that had not been digitised online, as I wanted to bring back a peripheral image that was being lost. I was trying to find a film that had a clear subject/focus, and I came across a 16mm Film that was shot in the 80’s called ‘A Ford Guide to Rally Co-driving’, this short documentary film focused on the rally-car as its subject/focus. 

From the beginning of my 'Peripheral' edit, we are presented with mesmerising blocks of colour, framed like that of a Rothko painting. This abstract theme continues throughout the Film, as I composed the sublime peripheral nature instead of the rally-car. Also my displacement of the sound simplified the Films elements, freeing the Film from simply being a one dimensional documentary on Rally Car driving into an entirely new Film.