Ian Helliwell

A found footage film made up entirely from super 8 leader, creating a frenetic collage of numbers, text, colours and processing information. Started around 1992, this evolved through many versions and spawned 2 companion films, Chromatic Leader (1996) and Megatherm Leader (2000).

Direct animation film using inks applied to found footage Super 8 film, originally shot in the 1970s directly from a TV screen featuring a broadcast of a Royal family occasion. The soundtrack was created using Hellitron tone generators.

The underlying chessboard image is derived from modified TV test pattern apparatus distorted by audio signals from a sinewave generator; filmed off a monitor with super 8, then coloured in with black ink and coated with household bleach. After initial editing on film it was compiled into positive, negative and split screen in a 1-2-4-2-1 sequence. The 4 track electronic music made with Helliwell's homemade circuits, also follows this symmetrical order.

Found super-8 footage giving a short demonstration in the art of paper folding; the film has been bleached and cut up, and accompanied by electronic music and animated titles. Soundtrack: Hellitron tone generators.

Using a very small electric craft drill with different attachments, parts of the emulsion of black super 8 film were carefully etched away. Colour was added with felt tip pens, and the soundtrack created with the Hellisizer Compact.

Experimental short film by Ian Helliwell.

A found footage film made up entirely from super 8 leader, creating a frenetic collage of numbers, text, colours and processing information. Started around 1992, this evolved through many versions and spawned 2 companion films, Chromatic Leader (1996) and Megatherm Leader (2000).

Direct animation film using inks applied to found footage Super 8 film, originally shot in the 1970s directly from a TV screen featuring a broadcast of a Royal family occasion. The soundtrack was created using Hellitron tone generators.

The underlying chessboard image is derived from modified TV test pattern apparatus distorted by audio signals from a sinewave generator; filmed off a monitor with super 8, then coloured in with black ink and coated with household bleach. After initial editing on film it was compiled into positive, negative and split screen in a 1-2-4-2-1 sequence. The 4 track electronic music made with Helliwell's homemade circuits, also follows this symmetrical order.

Found super-8 footage giving a short demonstration in the art of paper folding; the film has been bleached and cut up, and accompanied by electronic music and animated titles. Soundtrack: Hellitron tone generators.

Using a very small electric craft drill with different attachments, parts of the emulsion of black super 8 film were carefully etched away. Colour was added with felt tip pens, and the soundtrack created with the Hellisizer Compact.

Experimental short film by Ian Helliwell.

Abstract audio-generated waveform patterns from an oscilloscope and modified TV, were filmed with super-8 and then treated with bleach and vinegar. The electronic music features a special Hellitron photocell audio generator which reacts to varying amounts of light in the film. Soundtrack: Hellitron 10.

An abstract film derived from coloured inks applied onto clear super 8; sprocket holes from different gauges of film were used as stencils, leaving behind hard-edged rectangular shapes amongst the swirling patterns of ink.

A completely cameraless hand scratched and coloured film, made by direct animation onto black super-8. All the shapes were scratched in using a draughtsman's stencil, and the colour added with felt tip pens. The soundtrack was made using Hellitron generators.

Continuing a series of films made with Helliwell’s simple hand held Hellicam video camera pointing at a monitor, in order to generate colour feedback patterns. The soundtrack is electronic music composed by the filmmaker.

Naturally decayed found Super-8 footage of children's and adult's games has been cut up with scissors and spliced back together to reveal new rhythms and connections. Soundtrack: Tape loop, keyboard and ring modulator, homemade Hellitron generators.

A Super-8 film shot in 1997, re-edited and reworked with ink and bleach applied directly onto the footage. Parts of the original action can still be seen, though the emphasis is placed on texture, colour and the electronic music soundtrack.

Abstract film shot with super 8 through a cylinder of coloured viscous liquid. The footage was bleached and finally cut up and inverted, with electronic sounds made using Hellitron tone generators.

An abstract work originating from experiments in the early 1990s, using bleach, ink and scratching directly onto super 8 film. The recurring circular image was formed by placing droplets of bleach onto each frame with a pin. The electronic music, made with Helliwell's prototype customised circuits, has layers of sound changing phase during the course of the film.

Fast moving abstract film in two halves, gathering together Super-8 fragments and off-cuts shot over several years. The images include fairground lights and neon signs-- Images bleached, hand-coloured and edited into a frenetic collage.

A direct animation film made over a period of 3 years, using clear Super 8 covered with ink and overlaid with various Letraset shapes. The titles use paper cut-out animation, and the soundtrack features Helliwell's electronic sounds and improvisation on toy organ.

Found Super 8 footage is the basis of this flicker film which has been hand treated with ink and bleach. Every other frame has been coloured with a black marker pen to create the flicker and cracked mosaic effect.

A 2022 film by Ian Helliwell.

Ian Helliwell's 2011 documentary about an important and previously untold link in the history of early British Electronic Music, F.C. Judd.

Experimental short film by Ian Helliwell.

Circles in formation glide by, in this abstract direct animation film. Coloured inks were applied onto clear super-8 with felt-tip pens, using an old speaker grill as a stencil. Soundtrack: Hellitron tone generators.

Strips of adhesive Letratone textures were applied to super 8 film; to create the soundtrack the edited movie was played back and registered by a special photocell controlled audio generator, and the resulting tones were modified through speed changing.

Super-8 film of night and daytime cityscapes and illuminations, collected over several years and spliced together into a split-screen collage. The work is a mixture of home movie found footage, offcuts from various projects and specially filmed sequences, and has an electronic soundtrack to compliment the cut up collage style.

A film by Ian Helliwell.

A film shot with super-8 using various distortion lenses in front of the camera; partly in real-time, partly animation. The footage has been treated with coloured inks and bleach and features a specially composed electronic music soundtrack.

Flowing lights and colours are the focus of this abstract film shot with super-8 through a close-up lens. Helliwell`s homemade electronics provide the rhythmic soundtrack.

A short section of found super-8 lip-reading film set in a doctor`s waiting room, covered in bleach, drastically edited and completed with titles and a soundtrack of homemade electronic music. The sounds, all generated with Helliwell`s unique electronic generators, create a jagged accompaniment to the cut-up images.

Standard 8 found footage featuring a home movie wedding sequence in the 1960s. The film then goes behind the scenes to capture what happens afterwards in the newlywed`s honeymoon hotel room.

The fourth in a series of abstract shorts started in 1998 – all shot with super 8, exploring light through different lenses and filters. This film also incorporates bleaching as well as colour inversion to achieve the final effect.

Experimental short film.

Continuing experiments with super 8 and stroboscopic effects, this work expands on Helliwell`s earlier flicker films, Patterns of Interference (2000) and Optical Action (2005). The images consist of concentric circles and horizontal, vertical and wavy lines which were filmed frame by frame, then bleached and coloured with ink. The electronic soundtrack was made using Hellitron tone generators.

An abstract Super-8 film made by shooting directly into the beam of a projector through a distorting lens. Shards of coloured light pierce the blackness, accompanied by electronic music from customised circuits.

A short film composed of still images and electronic music, capturing the rugged brutalist beauty of Victor Pasmore's Apollo Pavilion, in Peterlee, County Durham. Helliwell composed the soundtrack and took more than 60 photographs of teh concerete structure in January 2020, combining these with animation and stills of NASA Apollo space missions to set the scene.

A Super-8 portrait of Jeff Keen. This short but evocative experimental portrait melds Keen's style with that of its maker, Ian Helliwell, another artist filmmaker based in Brighton. The title comes from an adage of Jeff Keen's and features Keen reading some Keen-isms.

Evolving out of bleached off-cuts from the 1998 film 'Into The Light', this short abstract sequel overlays super 8 film shot directly into a projector beam.

Split-screen film shot at the Atomium in Brussels, the centrepiece of the World`s Fair in 1958. The remarkable 335 feet high structure representing an iron crystal magnified 165 billion times, is captured with spontaneous super-8 camerawork, in all its silver spherical glory. Soundtrack: Hellisizer 2000, Hellitron generators.

Examples from a DIY book about Op Art patterns form the basis of this hypnotic film. The images seem to move by themselves in front of our eyes. Their flowing and shimmering is driven by colour changes and cross-fades until the boundaries between actual and imagined movement become blurred. It is not only the soundtrack and title that herald the mischievous spirit of this work.

A combination of 2 reels of super-8 animation, with driving electronic music, creating superimposed pulsing abstract patterns of stroboscopic intensity.

Electronically generated images, including Lissajous patterns from a modified television, were captured on Super-8 film and then treated by hand with coloured inks and bleach. Each of the five sections is closely matched by electronic music from Helliwell's customized circuits.

The image was formed through a process of reflection and feedback. A modified video camera connected to a monitor and pointing at the screen, was triggered into feedback via reflections on the screen surface generated by a laser and randomly flashing LEDs . The resulting flow of electronic images was controlled through camera movements and variations in the light sources.