Ian Helliwell

:"For the footballer, see Ian Helliwell (footballer)."Ian Helliwell is an experimental filmmaker based in Brighton, England. Entirely self-taught and self-funded, Helliwell has produced over 40 short films on Super 8 mm film since 1994. His work has been screened at many international avant-garde film festivals, including: the Avanto Festival in Helsinki, Rotterdam Film Festival, Hamburg Short Film Festival, Sónar in Barcelona, Impakt in Utrecht and Kill Your Timid Notion in Dundee.His recent 26 minute sound piece Expo 67 - a Radiophonic Collage, has been broadcast on radio stations in England and USA

Methods and Aesthetic Style

His work is notable for its low-fi aesthetic, with Helliwell himself doing everything including producing the visuals and the accompanying music. For this reason, he is more of a fine artist than a filmmaker. However, he is as much a part of the Brighton music scene as the contemporary art scene, and his films are sometimes screened at musical events and concerts.

Exploring direct animation techniques, Helliwell applies cheap, domestic materials (such as felt-tip marker pens, household bleach, and sandpaper) to strips of super 8 film which he edits with splicing tape, and then transfers onto mini-dv, via a simple telecine set-up in his bedroom. During the process (which with Helliwell's improvised equipment, simply involves videotaping the images produced by 1 or 2 Super 8 projectors), the reels of film are superimposed onto one another in a combination of different speeds. The video taped results have a charming, homemade psychedelic quality, which feel more intimate and personal than the many similar psychedelic reels produced in the 1960s.

Once the visuals have been produced, Helliwell creates an appropriate soundtrack using electronic musical instruments which he himself has customized in keeping with his own homemade, ramshackle aesthetic. This range of battery powered devices known as Hellitrons, are simple circuits which can be interlinked for a wide variety of tones and rhythms. During 2007 he designed and built an analogue synth - the Hellisizer 2000 - featuring 5 circuits, lights and patch leads, housed in a modified wooden radio cabinet. The Hellisizer is a live performance instrument and can also be heard on the soundtrack to the Atomium Age short film.

He has created 2 photocell based machines 'The Megatherm' (developed 1995-2000) and the 'Hellioptical' (2004), which both involve the interaction of super-8 film with light sensitive resistors, in order to generate electronic sound.

elected Filmography

The Atomium Age (2007, 2`25)

Playing Up (2007, 3`45)

Grid (2007, 2`20)

Signal Tracing (2007, 3`20)

Dash Dot (2006, 55sec)

Rust To Dust (2006, 2`25)

Sun Tower 70 (2006, 3`05)

Get Set (2005, 3`25)

Striations (2005, 4`10)

Deflection Currents (2005, 3`15)

Optical Action (2004, 3`50)

Interpenetration (2004, 3`25)

Compound Eye (2004, 3`10)

Filmosounds (2001-04, 5`05, 16mm/video) Angel Recovered (2003, 3`15)

Beyond the Light (2003, 3`35)

Cycles Per Second (2003, 3`20)

Crosshatch (2003, 7`25)

Origami (2003, 50sec)

Particle Acceleration (2002, 4`45)

Colour Stream (2002, 4`40)

Orbiting the Atom (2002, 4`50)

Headache (2002, 45sec)

Coloured Light District (2002, 2`10)

Chromaburst (2001, 4`55)

Linear Phases (2001, 1`55)

Return to the Light (2001, 1`55, triple screen)

Patterns of Interference (2000, 3`05)

The Firing Line (2000, 5m)

Art Flies Free (2000, 3`05)

Rectangular Motion (2000, 4`15)

Megatherm Leader (2000, 4m, super-8 & Megatherm instrument)

Red/Blue Electron Guns (1999, 2`50)

Into the Light (1998, 4`55)

Disc Break (1998, 3`25)

All In A Day's Work (1998, 3m)

Catalyst (1997, 1`25)

Crystallization (1997-2000, 3`45)

Crossing the Equator (1997, 2`20)

Our Honeymoon (1997, 1m, std.8)

Holes (1996-present, 4m, std.8)

Chromatic Leader (1996, 4m)

The Burning of a Billion Words (1996, 5m)

Ta Baby (1996, 3m)

Protection Leader (1993-95, 2`40)

Rubble Man (1995, 2.5m)

Danger of Death (1994, 6m)

External links

* [http://www.lux.org.uk/featured/helliwell.htm Interview with Ian Helliwell]
* [http://www.ianhelliwell.co.uk/ Helliwell's Home Page]