Scott Portingale

Consecution

Synopsis:

Consecution is an experimental natural history film that captures the intricate world of ice formation. Crystallographic patterns emerge as water transitions into elegant structures that are rarely experienced by our unaided senses.

Project Statement:

In recent years, I have felt inspired to capture aspects of nature beyond our sense of scale and time. This project crystallized during a biting Canadian polar vortex in 2019. Though I had no intention of creating a film at the time, I was experimenting in my unheated garage and discovered an exciting new macro subject, frost formation. I uploaded a clip to Instagram but sat on the footage for over a year before conceptualizing this project and raising funds to produce it. I ended up getting a grant from the Edmonton Arts Council and with funding I was able to access a Red Camera, build rigs, and work with composer Ali Helnwein on the original music. Motorized rigs were used to move the lights behind the glass the ice formed on. The moving lights backlit the frost in a very dynamic way, giving it an evolving texture as the fronds grew across the screen.

I originally intended to include an entire sequence of snowflake formation in the film. I soon learned creating snowflakes can only be done in lab under specific controlled conditions, not accessible by me. I compromised by filming snowflakes sublimating and then reversing the footage in post-production. I pulled off a couple shots but missed many windows of time where the conditions were favourable to shoot snowflakes. If I wasn’t poised to shoot (and awake) when these conditions happen, I miss the boat. I felt like a BBC cinematographer in the Himalayas, sitting in a blind for months, waiting for a snow leopard to pee on a rock, only to fall prey to a cat nap when the magical moment happens. My compromise was to use digital mirrors on the frost footage. This enabled me to affect the footage to take on the hexagonal archetype that most snowflakes structure themselves around, creating that symmetrical familiarity found in nature. Though I normally strive to capture subjects in camera, the surprise element when affecting this footage felt experimental and contained a visual language unto itself.

After the Big Bang, the universe began to cool down from an extremely hot state, resulting in the formation of stars and planetary materials that we observe today. These events are referred to as a phase transition, specifically a condensation, which is similar in nature to the formation of water droplets and ice on a windshield. It appears that reality has emerged on a patterned continuum and continues to do so. Our evolutionary development is closely linked to our ability to recognize patterns. This advanced pattern recognition has enabled us to quickly identify potential dangers and opportunities, and has assisted us in developing complex social structures and technologies. As Isaiah Berlin said, "To understand is to perceive patterns."

Project Stills

Thank you to the following for the support of this project:

EDMONTON ARTS COUNCIL