I spent days in dark rooms rocking buckets of warm mint solutions and
inhaling the salty dank smell of seaweed extracts for this film to come to
light. I would count increments of sixty seconds as I sloshed the film in these
potions and solutions.
DEÒ is a film about place-exploring our relationship with the land, women's
ecological knowledge, and the freedom to take up space. Shot in rural
Galloway, where I grew up, it weaves in Celtic folklore (Bean Nighe,
Hawthorn trees) and ancient practices rooted in the landscape. These
stories often carry ecological warnings and dark twists, resonating with
today's environmental crisis. As I chose locations and foraged for developing
ingredients, I felt more connected to this land than I had since childhood, as
if I were exploring it for the first time again.
DEÒ is an organic film where process is considered equal to outcome. The
medium is super 8 film developed in my homemade mint solution. There are
also phytograms and 35mm sections developed using foraged nettles and
seaweed. This circular approach-gathering, processing, then seeing these
elements reappear on screen-felt natural for the making of the film and
impacted my ideas of how I approached the material.
After developing, I worked frame by frame, scratching and painting directly
onto the film's emulsion under a microscope, layering animation and mark-
making. Although this project diverges from my traditional, handmade
animation - the tactile nature of the film, frugal approach to the medium and
preemptive editing is still reflective of the animation process.
The soundtrack is performed and composed by one of my dear friends
Rhona MacDonald. This film wouldn't be the same without her.
inhaling the salty dank smell of seaweed extracts for this film to come to
light. I would count increments of sixty seconds as I sloshed the film in these
potions and solutions.
DEÒ is a film about place-exploring our relationship with the land, women's
ecological knowledge, and the freedom to take up space. Shot in rural
Galloway, where I grew up, it weaves in Celtic folklore (Bean Nighe,
Hawthorn trees) and ancient practices rooted in the landscape. These
stories often carry ecological warnings and dark twists, resonating with
today's environmental crisis. As I chose locations and foraged for developing
ingredients, I felt more connected to this land than I had since childhood, as
if I were exploring it for the first time again.
DEÒ is an organic film where process is considered equal to outcome. The
medium is super 8 film developed in my homemade mint solution. There are
also phytograms and 35mm sections developed using foraged nettles and
seaweed. This circular approach-gathering, processing, then seeing these
elements reappear on screen-felt natural for the making of the film and
impacted my ideas of how I approached the material.
After developing, I worked frame by frame, scratching and painting directly
onto the film's emulsion under a microscope, layering animation and mark-
making. Although this project diverges from my traditional, handmade
animation - the tactile nature of the film, frugal approach to the medium and
preemptive editing is still reflective of the animation process.
The soundtrack is performed and composed by one of my dear friends
Rhona MacDonald. This film wouldn't be the same without her.
A snippet from my ECA grad film
