Ian Helliwell (filmmaker) - Methods and Aesthetic Style

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. Since 2008 he has used a computer for the mastering of his super 8 films, adding a great deal more flexibility to the same basic equipment set-up.

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 and EMS 8 short films. The most recent Hellisizer - model 3000 (multiplay), was designed and built in 2009 and intended as an instrument for up to 5 participants to play simultaneously, in either installation or live performance mode. Through simple interaction with control knobs, the players can reach a wide variety of different electronic sounds.

Helliwell has created 2 photocell based machines 'The Megatherm' (developed 1995-2000) and the 'H-Op 1' (2004), which both involve the interaction of super-8 film with light sensitive resistors, in order to generate electronic sound.

Ian's audio series The Tone Generation, started in 2008, is an ongoing exploration of early electronic music in the era of magnetic tape and analogue synthesizers. Using his record and CD collection, he has been assembling half hour programmes which look at different composers and themes. The first 10 programmes are a worldwide panorama of electronic music, the subsequent editions look at a specific subject illustrated with sound clips, effects and music. The series is engineered by fellow Brighton electronic music maker Simonsound at his studio on the outskirts of the city.

Practical Electronica is the title of Helliwell's documentary project on the work of musician, inventor, engineer, designer and author FC Judd. While covering the various facets of his career, the film focusses on his experimental sound, and shines a light on an overlooked figure who straddled the amateur and professional worlds of early British electronic music.