Production history around: Under Ice

This article will go over the creation of my film ‘Under Ice’, which was released on the 3rd of January, 2025.

It all started when I saw a gallery open call from ADL Productions. This curator was requesting art pieces under the theme ‘Under Ice’, using Kate Bush’s song as inspiration. All selected pieces would be displayed at 54 The Gallery, Mayfair, London. W1J 7QX.

Since my academic study is in ‘chance’, I try to engage within the theme whenever possible. I would never have made a film about this topic at this time if it were not for the prompt, so I decided to throw myself into it.

I also found the deadline very appealing. I find that chance works best with a restriction, so the fact that this all needed to be done within a month was a great motivator

My initial ideas can be seen below:

While the sheet of ice idea was not used, I stuck with the idea of someone reading Bush’s lyrics over the footage I created. In terms of who read it, I decided not to ask Abi as I am keen to have her in a different piece in the future, but only time will tell if that will happen.

Also, regarding me referring to ‘Under Ice’ as a poem, I actually had no idea who Kate Bush was prior to this, thinking she was a poet. So, when I analysed the lyrics, I had thought of them as a poem instead. Though, to be honest, the distinction does feel kind of arbitrary.

When I first read the lyrics, my initial thoughts were that this was about someone suffering from addiction, who has cut themselves away from the world. That they were heavily addicted to cocaine, but wanted to kick the habit. As they snort a line, they think about how they no longer want to be this way. They have a heart attack, or stroke, and wish they could reverse time.

Since Christmas had just passed, I had recently received a ‘Walking Way 8 Points Star’ lens filter from my wife Isobel.

Isobel’s parents were down in Plymouth, staying at a BnB. During their stay they put scattered a few decorations about (we never got to putting any up this year). Since the filter works by taking a light source, and turning it into a star (size and quality dependent on intensity), I decided to test it out on the Christmas tree lights.

A photo I took on the 27th of December 2024 while testing out the filter.

I thought this looked so good and interesting that the idea of ‘Under Ice’ and the star-shaped Christmas lights merged. I also enjoyed the juxtaposition of something kind of cheery with something depressing. The phrase ‘the lights are on but no one is home’ came to mind.

Below are some of the ideas I came up with on Christmas, many of which did not make it into the final project:

On the bottom left of the page, the ‘old piece’ I am referring to is something called ‘C u r r e n t M o o d’, which I made back in 2016 as a shitpost. It is interesting though that I was creating art-like videos all the way back then.

For the coke in the film, I really wanted to have a shot of me snorting the stuff for that authenticity, even though it made some pretty incriminating footage! I did a bit of looking online, and apparently what they often use on movie sets is Vitamin B Powder.

I was a little concerned, as I found many articles during my research that mentioned Jonah Hill being hospitalized after snorting too much of it on the set of ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’.

Another worry I had was that this production would have peak ‘student film’ energy, given the subject matter. In the end, I thought, ‘fuck it’. I don’t want the worry of something I do coming across as cringe, stopping me from following my own creativity. If I am going to make 100s of films, I cannot be too worried about some of them being stinkers.

After we shot the scenes of me dying in the corner, Isobel said “I wonder what this would look like with long exposure”, which caused us to play around with the lights.

This same type of scenario created the film ‘After Images’, where at the nightclub Images, Isobel played with my camera in order to make the shots long exposure.

I think it is very cool that a lot of the long exposure shots we took for this piece (of me tangled up in Christmas tree lights and dancing to the Dandadan opening song ‘Otonoke’ by Creepy Nuts) could exist as their own pieces. Maybe I will start submitting them to photography events? Not sure.

Here are some of my favourite shots:

The voice over was done by Sammy Newton-Campbell, and I think she did a wonderful job with it.

Much like Louis from my previous production diaDOGue, Sammy also appeared in my film After Images (2), but this is the first time I had asked her for help directly with a piece.

Sammy sent me her audio via Discord’s audio message feature. I had no idea how to save the file... So, I opened audacity and recorded my PC sounds in order to capture the audio. When listening back, there were these interesting sounds of the ocean which I did not understand. Then it hit me, I accidentally had the game ‘The Bazaar’ open in the background, and ambient noise from that got picked up too.

(The game has been my current addiction… December and January have been a lot less productive as a result. I’m trying to unlock the legendary Vanessa skin which is mech themed and has cute space buns… The odds are like 1/500 for a legendary, so it is unlikely, but the game is fun at least!)

On top of Sammy’s voice and the Mediterranean sounds of an ocean breeze and bird calls, I added the sound of snow being crunched as someone walks along. There were a few reasons for this: it was atmospheric, and matched the lyrics of the piece as well as my interpretation, but also the contrast of hot beach sounds with cold winter sounds I thought was interesting, and added an alien out of place quality.

For the song, I used ‘Nostalgic Winter Soundscape’ by Universfield. I think the name is very apt, as I do think it feels very nostalgic, but also melancholic. There is a nice sadness to the piece that feels detached, like the feeling of disassociation.

In terms of shots, I think it is interesting that at 0:25, during the line “leaving little line in the ice”, an interference happens with the camera that causes lines to run up the screen. This was unintentional, but looks quite cool.

I don’t like the below shot! I think I don’t look dead enough, or that I shift too much from the previous shot. I don’t know, there is something about it that feels very amateur in a way that irks me (even though I definitely am an amateur!).

I made the shot in the beginning and end of the film play forward in the first instance, and backwards in the second. That way when this film is played on repeat at a gallery, it would be more or less be seamless. The shot was made in my kitchen on the 26th of June, 2024. I noticed that the curtain on the window was casting a pretty, ethereal shadow, so I wanted to capture it. It sat on my desktop in the ‘Shots to use, but I’m not sure what for’ file for months. In the uncropped version, my dog Toffee comes to investigate.

In the end, it turned out in the end that the gallery was not able to present film works! I was not too bothered though, as I was able to make something fun as a result anyway.