Borough Lights

On a nighttime visit to The Shard, the UK's tallest building in 2019, I was struck by the lights shining out from the black landscape around Borough High Street in north Southwark, right in the heart of London. A black canvas stretching as far as you could see, peppered with colour, lines, shapes movement and noise.

Light and movement have been a constant inspiration for me in my art and I am certain this is, in part from having suffered from epilepsy as a child. The build-up of electricity within the brain creates an aura, which develops quickly into a forceful, uncontrollable seizure. Colour, lines, shapes, movement, and noise - all within the brain.

  • Richard Q Miller
    Director
  • Richard Q Miller
    Producer
  • Project Type:
    Experimental
  • Runtime:
    3 minutes 52 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    July 1, 2020
  • Production Budget:
    500 GBP
  • Country of Origin:
    United Kingdom
  • Country of Filming:
    United Kingdom
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16.9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Richard Q Miller

Richard Miller studied Fine Art, film, video, and sound at Maidstone College of Art in the early 1980s and has produced several experimental films. In 1989, his documentary Save the Rose brilliantly captured the campaign to Save the Rose Theatre on Bankside, London. Miller has directed several music videos and, in 2020, produced three films for Southwark Cathedral.

In 2016, Miller won a National Portrait Gallery competition and has held three solo art exhibitions.

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Director Statement

I created my first abstract animation scratched directly onto Super 8 film stock aged 16 in 1978. Only after making that film did I then discover Norman Mclaren, Len Lye, Stan Brakhage, and other filmmakers experimenting directly with film surface.

I have returned to this theme over the years, more recently investigating the idea of using modern digital technology. In 2015, my short film, Light Fantastic, was screened at the Shortwave Cinema in Bermondsey.

I cannot present Borough Lights without also encouraging anyone watching to seek out the inspirational work of Mclaren, Lye and Brakhage.