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Set in a near-future where consciousness preservation has become possible, De Facto 36 explores the ethics and aesthetics of memory as digital artefact. When an experiment to render memory eternal is set to begin, an unseen entity from a distant future intervenes — triggering a surreal cascade across timelines, technologies, and selves.
De Facto explores concepts of the self, technology, digital immortality and artificial intelligence with visions of the real and the surreal.
Featuring - Myriam Mégharbi and Mark Ozzo
Co-Written by - John Vincent & Myriam Mégharbi
Digital 3D Models - Luke Dash
Camera, VFX, Sound, Editing and Direction by - John Vincent
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'Critical Point' was my second commission by SparkedEcho to research and create a short film for the Kent based digital festival, Electric Medway 2021.
The film started with research in to a moment back in the 1960's when a young mother lost her life after falling in to a 'Dene hole' - an ancient mine shaft - after the cover fell in. This tragic moment showed that man-made intervention can affect the environment many years in to the future.
The geographical focus was Strood in the Medway area. Research involved online searches, visiting the archive centre to acquire information and images, and on location filming. The film included a large amount of animation and ‘re-animation’ in the form of bringing old archive images back to life.
Returning to the idea of climate change, the commissioned film responded to the festival theme of ‘Synchronised’ and sub-theme of ‘disrupted reality’ in a number of ways. First, this was an experiment with dual channel and split screen video where both parts go in and out of synch throughout the film. This visual interpretation of the theme allowed detailing of similar scenes and the juxtaposition of opposing or contrasting scenes. Another response was through time by linking past to present with the pairing of events or objects such as windmills - which were a feature of the landscape during the 1800s - and comparing their natural power gathering capabilities with modern day turbines.
The idea of climate change was emphasised through the contrast of the present and a dystopian future world over video screens in a scene at Broomhill Park, a local green space and nature reserve which also includes a reference to the Bosch painting ‘Magpie on the Gallows’ in this sequence; a reference that alludes to an event that has already occurred.
The film also features a 'digital' poem connecting the past and future to the present by way of social media and, in turn, its piling up of digital waste.
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I was commissioned by SparkedEcho to research and create a short film for Electric Medway, a new digital arts festival held in Chatham, Medway.
In the spirit of science fiction classics such as H.G. Wells’ ‘The Time Machine’ and Ballard’s ‘Drowned World’, Rochester was transformed in to a future affected by the ravages of time and climate change. This surreal, time-travelling short film switches between the past, present and an imagined future - a nightmare of reflections of what is the future, and what has gone. The film is a surreal, time travelling experience with the effects of climate change at the centre. As the film travels from past through the present and in to the future, members of the public were invited to comment on what once was (as if they were speaking in the future) of this low-lying area recalling the past as either a text or audio submission.
Working with the Medway Archives, I was able to acquire images from an earlier period in the history of Rochester for use in the film. These images were merged with contemporary footage to create a time travelling experience throughout the film. Some of these images were animated to create the illusion of early footage.
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‘Jitter’ is a short, surrealistic horror where the puppets are now in charge. Operating from an untouchable realm, their agenda is to transform ‘No Place’ – a fantastical Utopian dream turned to Dystopian nightmare – by carving it up and brutally removing the non-compliant. There is hope, however, in the form of some youthful idealism…
In essence, 'Jitter' is set in a world where there is homelessness with the carving up of property and land as commodity without community regardless of the consequences.
The weaker are essentially left out of this new society of super home ownership and are left to expire, on their own. With a steady number of foot soldiers
prepared to carry out this societal demolition and a disenfranchised youth unable to respond with enough force to make change all that is left is anxiety and
acute mental health degradation.
First screened at 'GARDEN GASP!'
Featuring: Mark Ozzo & Alice TV
Puppets/Puppetry: Louise Lahive
Production Assistance: James Thackway
A woman seeks escape from her life as it spirals out of control and descends into a fractured identity seemingly influenced by a sinister suit and the emergence of an avian alter-ego.
A short film inspired by the 1955 film Dementia (Aka Daughter Of Horror).
Crash Site follows a mysterious figure wandering through the edges of a British town. He may be an alien in human form, or simply a man with a troubled past — either way, his presence distorts the everyday.
He appears to possess supernatural powers, but these may be illusions, distractions from a deeper loneliness.
2022 Edit.
Featuring Mark Ozzo & Alice TV
Video and Audio Shot, Directed & Edited By John Vincent
Originally shot 4K/5.9K downscaled to HD
This was a short film commissioned for 'Alternative Letchworth - Past & Present' by the Broadway Gallery was created from researching the early pioneers of Letchworth Garden City (approx 1905-1917).
The film features a portrayal of local Earnest Edward Ironside, a typical 'simple lifer' and early pioneer of Letchworth Garden City. His simple lifestyle is interrupted by the hard headed businessman William Gaunt who appears in several guises during the film in a attempt to track down and remove these simple life characters so that they do not detract from the business opportunities this early Letchworth had to offer. A third character, the appropriately named Miss Black, appears half-way through the film scaring the children as per research in to real comments made by her character (“King Herod was a really wise man”).
Featuring: James Pearce, Louise Lahive, Alice TV & Oscar TV
Archive Images: Garden City Collection
Filmed as part of the Vision Of Utopia exhibition public programme in Letchworth Garden City (Mar-Apr 2014), Dystopian Vision turned the exhibitions premise of Garden City as Utopian ideal on its head by visiting a parallel world where climate change and neglect has transformed Letchworth in to a ruin on an island. The film was largely inspired by the Statue of Liberty scene in the original 'Planet of the Apes'.
In response to the exhibitions brief, the present day becomes the archive from which the characters and landscape are drawn. The cast were selected from local residents and visitors to Letchworth, filmed against a green screen on March 29th 2014 and placed amongst 'Dystopianised' landmarks of the Garden City.
Although screened as a standalone film, it was actually intended as an installation film you could leave and come back to.
From 'Timeline' exhibition video installation. 'Brightcot Revisited', 2013 Video: 8m 6s ©Artist
This house, formerly known as ‘Brightcot’, is one of the oldest in Letchworth. Designed by architects Barry Parker and Raymond Unwin it is a cottage originally built for the Miss Wilkinsons (presumably sisters) one of whom was a secretary for the local suffragist movement.
This video is a time travelling experience that seeks to discover changes to the house and grounds and begins with the position of an old gate bearing the house’s former name at the front of the house. The video explores both the architecture, ideas of transformation and the desire to travel through time and the futility of such an idea.
Images of ‘Brightcot’ reproduced with permission of First Garden City Heritage Museum, Letchworth Garden City, gardencitymuseum.org
'Timeline' Exhibition supported by Digswell Arts and Arts Council England
This short film was part of the exhibition 'With No Hope of Heaven' which also featured painting.
This film was inspired by the story of Maria Coroner, one of the few people to have been caught sending hoax Jack The Ripper letters. She was eventually fined £20 for the offence of breach of the peace. What, exactly, was going through her mind?
Featuring: Zoe Plumb
Directed & Edited By John Vincent
This short film was part of the exhibition 'O Have You Seen The Devle' which also featured painting.
A film exploring the locations of the ripper murders and the myth that the artist Walter Sickert was the real killer.
Featuring: Zoe Plumb & James Thackway
Directed & Edited By John Vincent
"The water hides... it disguises..."
Black Water follows a man living in a closed-down Victorian mental hospital. His isolation and strange private rituals are broken with the arrival of a mysterious childlike woman. As the day progresses, they become like brother and sister, but there is something lurking under the surface. Their journey between reality and imaginings will lead ultimately to the Black Water.
Featuring: Mark Ozzo, Andrea Sadler & Hayley Smith
Written By Mark Dennis
Music by James Thackway
Directed & Edited By John Vincent