Exploring Scotland and Iceland via Straight8

Film is always a great way to explore landscapes and cultures, even more so when you shoot on analogue and in straight8. Allowing yourself only one chance to capture the landscape, or the plot in that same landscape, makes you think about and observe deeply what's in front of you.

How do the waves role into a certain part of the beach?

How do they change from one minute to the next?

What's their sound like?

How does wind translate to a screen without sound?

What's the window to capture a glacier that is mostly covered in clouds? How do you know what it looks like underneath?

I love having the wee Super8 camera in my baggage on my travels, simply because I love building 3.30 minutes stories without edit in post-production, but also because I noticed how much it makes me spend time observing and reflecting before and while I shoot.

During the Northern Wave International Film Festival in Iceland, I made time to listen to stories about people being too light-headed with the powerful Icelandic landscape - and transformed that to visual imagery.

Over new year, Simon came up to Scotland and we shot another Straight8 together about the mind games of an alcoholic. Using the dramatic landscape of the Scottish Highlands to represent the workings of the mind is .... pretty breathtaking.