<in
the spring of 1988, a group of Glasgow filmmakers gathered in a room [perhaps
a first] to try and put together a joint film project for Glasgow's forthcoming
Year of Culture in 1990 celebrations. The idea was that everyone would contribute
a five-minute piece on some aspect of the city. In the end burrellesque
was the only part that actually got made.../>
burrellesque
1990 7 minutes 35mm
<this
is the final animation I shot on film and at the time, the last I ever expected
to make. I was aware the film represented the end of a journey, although at
the time I simply thought this meant it would be my last film to be done by
conventional means, without using a computer. In the spirit of tying off loose
ends creatively, there are references
to every other film I had made to date, including a self-portrait sequence.../>
<the
film's premise is simple: the spirits of the works in the collection escape
by day to play in the park and are gathered up each evening to return to the
objects which they are supposed to inhabit, making it also a play on the meaning
of the word 'animate'. It is a very Glaswegian film in the sense that the title
is only truly comprehensible to people familiar with the city. Anyone else would
be forgiven for thinking I simply couldn't spell burlesque.../>
<burrellesque
is a 'one shot film. The action follows the central road round Pollok Estate
park where the Burrell collection is housed in its own museum. The action appears
to unfold over a single day but in the background the seasons are also subtly
changing, which meant speculatively taking all the photographs over the period
of a year, just in case the project got funded. The interior shots were all
taken once it was sure the film was going ahead.../>
