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Ruby's Film x Halcyon
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Ruby x Halcyon
This film is an indelible video-tribute to a very close friend who was tragically killed.
Her death shocked the world around her.
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I am 33 now ; but when I was 16 a very close friend was killed tragically : my first kiss, the first person to share a joint with, the first person to show me rave music, a big influence in my young maturing world, and in many ways, one of the influences on me to become the alternative filmmaker I am today.
Ruby.
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The footage I captured back then wasn't grand or cinematic ; it was just us, hanging around the village, getting into typical teenage troubles. We spent our childish days sitting on the pier smoking, writing stories, drawing pictures on stone, hustling locals to sell us smokes, and sitting on the jagged sea rocks in the worst rainy windy conditions ; at 14 years old, the end of the longer pier was the only place adults wouldn’t find us smoking.
In 2005 ; capturing moving images was still a hobbyist’s domain - a deliberate act of documentation by very few individuals un-wise enough to waste their lives on it. The following story happened way before smartphones, before social media, before video-phones, before camera-phones ; and before I understood the gravity of what I was really doing.....
'Ruby x Halcyon'
For years, the clips of us remained stuck on the same miniDV tape i had shot it on, and the weight of the responsibility (holding real unseen footage of Ruby) began to haunt me.
I had a responsibility, as a filmmaker, to make a film, and show this gorgeous footage to her wonderful friends & family.
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As 10 years without Ruby approached, i decided i had to turn the raw footage into a final film ; to create something new & beautiful out of the old.
To finally confront the past and turn this raw feeling into art,
I knew I had to return to the source.
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I tracked down and rebought the exact model of the camcorder I used at thirteen. I went back to shoot evocative B-roll, capturing the textures of the world we used to inhabit. I teamed up with close friends to craft a bespoke soundtrack that honoured the musical awakening Ruby gave me. I scanned in her letter, and another pal animated her beautiful scripture into a gif. This was more than cutting together old footage ; it was about building a bridge between the 33-year-old filmmaker I am now and the teenage kid who lost his friend.
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"TIP TOP SECRET & CONFIDENTIAL"
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The coastal village we both stayed in was a mythical place of escapism - where we lived unconnected lives separated from respective cities. Cultures clashed and ideas rubbed off - as words, games, rituals, gossip and stories were swapped and cross-polinated between cities of developing humans.
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Ruby was such a bright spark,
and everyone around her loved her dearly.
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I sat in her old room, alone, looking at her walls plastered with memories.
Posters, gig tickets, nick-nacks, record player. I saw the word ‘halcyon’ on a poster,
- and it wasn't until many years later that i finally understood what it means.
We spent the night dancing in her room.
I played all of her vinyl. i flipped them all.
We danced and laughed and cried and memorialised her ; belting out all her favourite tunes.
Her dad handed me the vinyl for the last record she listened to, to keep.
I cherished this gesture greatly, which started my record collection that night, and the rest is history.
I still struggle to grasp her not being here now.
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I couldn’t really relate to my schoolfriends as much after all that.
And I was kicked out of school 3 months later for low grades.
It became hard fitting in with my old pals.
I could never explain why.
"Tip top secret & confidential" was what she had written atop of a letter she sent me years earlier.
The contents thoughtful.
Her scripture inspired.
We all miss her madly.
She often features in my dreams.
Every now and then i pretend were all sitting on the rocks.
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Halcyon x Ruby
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