Gong, a film created by David Leister, incorporates an original score written by Dr Andrew Knight-Hill, which sprung from a university-funded project, (I)MAGESOUND(S).
(I)MAGESOUND(S) is a collaborative project between Dr Knight-Hill and artist and filmmaker Jim Hobbs, who teaches digital art at the university. Part of the collaboration included touring a live performance of experimental films and electronic sounds.
Dr Knight-Hill said: "David Leister was one of the filmmakers included in the tour. He joined us for one of the gigs and brought along a new film project, which I created an improvised live soundtrack for. He really enjoyed my experimental approach and asked me to create a soundtrack for a final version of Gong.
"The visual aspect of the film is constructed from layered loops of the Rank Organisation logo, in which a man strikes a large Gong. The soundtrack that I developed takes the original crackly recording of the Rank Organisation gong as a starting point, gradually introducing close up recordings of rich gong resonances and scrapes that I recorded over at Trinity Laban Conservertorie using the fantastic location sound equipment that we have access to at the university.
"This project is a really great example of collaboration between artists and between institutions, and in August we were delighted to hear that the film had been chosen to be part of this year's BFI London Film Festival."
You can catch Gong in the Double Vision screening, which is part of the Experimenta strand of the festival, on Sunday 6 October at 12.30pm at the BFI Southbank.
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