News

Monday 23rd October, 9pm on BBC Four – Reviewed by the Radio Times as the “documentary of the week”. Don’t miss it!

The BBC press release says:

• “Koyaanisqatsi meets Gardeners’ World in time lapse depiction of a year in an English garden”.

A unique time lapse film about a year in the life of a 300-year-old picturesque English walled garden..

‘A Year in an English Garden: Flicker + Pulse’ is a striking and poignant portrayal of time passing in the walled garden at The Beeches. Film-makers used real-time and time-lapse footage to explore the relationship between the seasons, the plants and people who work within the walls of the garden.

The directors aim to pitch gardening into the realms of philosophy and to reveal the simple pleasures of engaging with nature to non-gardeners and seasoned pros alike.

Produced by Site-Eye, the UK’s leading time-lapse production company, the 60 minute film takes the form of a contemplative visual poem using the seasons and nature’s natural rhythms to explore humans’ ties or lack of with the pulse of life and death within the garden.

It also features voice-overs from gardeners, horticulturalists, astronomers and archaeologists who provide a varied, and intriguing philosophy on our relationship with the soil. These are set to a stunning soundtrack by Wendy Rae Fowler. Flicker + Pulse was filmed over a year with nine cameras, resulting in approximately 60 hours of footage. Post production took ten months, with the final BBC Four documentary being edited down to 60 minutes.

The independent film-makers took an organic approach to collecting footage to allow the film to take shape naturally and had no pre-set ideas about how the final film would look.

Director Tom Wichelow said: “Flicker + Pulse is an important film, one that reconnects us to something that is easy to forget – something that is bigger than all of us. Something that we forget at our peril.”

Co- Director Brian McClave added: “We wanted to get away from the over produced, perfect time-lapse films that we are used to seeing. We made punk rock time-lapse. It’s Koyaanisqatsi meets Gardeners’ World!”

Sandy Coppen, owner of the walled garden said: “The original inspiration came when I went to the Tate years ago and there was a short time-lapse film of a rotting peach which I found mesmerising. Having worked in the garden for many years, I was always amazed to observe the dramatic seasonal change from bare earth to an overflowing abundance of colour and texture. I thought this needed to be captured and hope that the BBC Four audience will enjoy the film on Monday.”

Flicker + Pulse was written and directed by Brian McClave and Tom Wichelow. The film was produced by Brian McClave, Tom Wichelow and Site-Eye Films. Music is by Wendy Rae Fowler with sound design by Tim Howarth.

A preview for Flicker + Pulse is available from BBC TV Previews – previews.unit@bbc.co.uk