John MacFadyen - 1970
ABOUT THE FILM : John MacFadyen
Scottish Screen Archive - National Library of ScotlandYear: 1970
The credits are written directly on the film stock, with sweeps of the paintbrush. The intersecting lines announce the theme: it is indeed a Scottish film in which the motifs humorously evoke the characteristic patterns of tartans and kilts. Blocks of colour are repeated vertically and horizontally forming a pattern of squares and lines.
The modern mood of the images contrasts with the heady music of the bagpipes. Gradually the lines move together to create small stylised people who perform a few traditional dance steps before disappearing.
Nationality: Scottish
Length: 3' 22"
Genre: experimental,animation
Sound: sound
Original elements: hand-coloured
Producer: Ancona Films
Composers: Orkney Strathspey, Reel Society
Original language: English
A BRIEF HISTORY : John MacFadyen
Hailing from the Orkney Islands, Margaret Tait, a medical graduate from the University of Edinburgh, soon turned her interest towards experimental cinema, which she studied from 1950 to 1952 at the Centro Sperimentale di Photographia in Rome.
Tait produced and directed over thirty films between 1952 and 1996. The restricted number of circulating copies and her mistrust of commercial circuits have considerably limited access to her work, so her films are largely unknown to the general public.
The multitalented artist, poet and filmmaker sought to transcend the frontiers between the arts. Her highly original artistic approach was often inspired by Scottish culture as in this experimental film in which she painted typically Scottish motifs directly onto the film stock.
The preservation of the Margaret Tait Collection has been one of the most ambitious projects of the Scottish Screen Archive. The artist employed experimental and unconventional techniques such as working directly on the film stock, scratching, and splicing of positive and negative film stock.
Painting on film stock, as found in the John Macfadyen, is a major challenge for restoration and preservation. Margaret Tait used water-soluble paint applied with brushes to translucent 35mm film. It has therefore been impossible to employ classic techniques to clean and restore the film. It has been necessary to produce a duplicate frame by frame using a special photographic chemical process. The restoration will soon be completed using digital techniques.
