Private Project

MARS

MARS is an experimental short film featuring music by Sounding and visuals directed by Shelley Hopkins, produced by Florence Meuleman-Griffin on the sub label EQ.

MARS is inspired by the wonders of space travel and transports us to a cosmic realm where we witness the birth of supernovas and planets with a background of stars. The visuals explode in harmony with the ambient beats and are simultaneously fixed at the micro (the dance of creation) and the macro (the unimaginably vast and unwittingly beautiful scale of an unthinking universe). It's a meditative piece that explores the colossal cosmic tidal forces that stretch our perception, as well as the little breaths and heart beats of our tiny beautiful and ever-changing possibilities.

  • Shelley Hopkins
    Director
  • Florence Meuleman-Griffin
    Producer
  • Sounding
    Music
  • Shelley Hopkins
    Editor
  • Project Type:
    Experimental, Music Video, Short
  • Runtime:
    7 minutes 11 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    March 9, 2025
  • Production Budget:
    0 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United Kingdom
  • Country of Filming:
    United Kingdom
  • Shooting Format:
    DSLR
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
  • Edmonton Underground Film Festival
    Edmonton
    Canada
    October 18, 2025
    Premiere
  • Boston Short Film Festival
    Boston
    United States
    July 14, 2026
  • London Indie Film Festival

    Official Selection
  • Zeal International Film Festival

    Finalist
Director Biography - Shelley Hopkins

Shelley Hopkins is an artist-filmmaker whose work explores the relationship between sound, material transformation and perception. Working with analogue and experimental processes, she films everyday substances, chemical reactions and altered film stock, often at magnified scales. Developed through close collaborations with musicians, her films emerge through an iterative dialogue between image and sound, creating immersive audiovisual works. Screenings for her films BINAURAL GLASS, CHRONOTYPE, MARS and BECOMING include Aesthetica Short Film Festival, Altered Images, Darkroom Festival, New Jersey Independent Film Festival, Ghent International Film Week and Ardennes International Film Festival. BECOMING has won awards for Best Experimental Film, Best Installation Film and Best Avant-Garde Film.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

MARS is a music video made in collaboration with Fabio La vecchia also known as Sounding, an Italian ambient and experimental electronic musician 'whose passion for creating music was ignited by the haunting soundscapes of David Lynch's films.' His musical journey began with playing keyboards in rock bands, drawing inspiration from groups like Mogwai, Air and Pink Floyd.

I found Sounding on Instagram and instantly felt I'd found a kindred spirit with a mutual love of Angelo Badalamenti, Lynch and mid 90s ambient music. This a passion project, I particularly enjoyed the analogue process of filming this, it's all shot in a Petri dish with natural light for pennies. In the edit there is no manipulation of colour, some speed stretching because once I'd committed to mainly cutting on the beat and the 'narrative' there was no turning back.