What started as a few snapshots of scenery in and around Preston at different times of the year began to grow into an idea for a short film by amateur film maker and musician John Hickey. The film called, TIME MACHINE takes the viewer on a journey through time.

“Over the last few years I’ve become interested in the possibilities offered by mobile phone cameras, both for still images and for video,” said John, “and I have taken lots of photographs of Preston and its surroundings. Last year I took a few photos of The Harris Museum and Library from the top of Friargate and became fascinated by how the scene altered over the months in what would appear to be an unchanging view.”

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As 2013 progressed John took a series of photos of other views around Preston documenting the seasons and other changes. In January 2014 he began to compile these images and form them into a series of slowly evolving scenes using a simple video editing programme.
“I quickly saw the possibility of turning these images into a story, in fact a journey through time, and found three separate sets of images that would hold together as a three part film. Having done a rough edit of the film I began work on a soundtrack”.

Using a computer based multi-track recording studio John began to record a soundtrack for the film and, following the images closely, began to enhance the visuals with sound.
“I treated it as if I was scoring a movie and tried to highlight the drama and pace of the film with the music. Each of the three parts has it’s own feel and character and I wanted the music to reflect that. I think adding the music is what really brought the project to life”.

To further develop the soundtrack John recruited his friend, Pete Cobb, to add acoustic and electric guitars to the piece.
“Pete Cobb is a great guitarist and I’ve recorded three albums for the band, COBBRO, that he formed with his brother Joe Cobb”, said John.
COBBRO, perform live in Preston, often at Korova Arts Café. Pete was the natural choice to add guitars to TIME MACHINE and they lift the soundtrack to another level.

After uploading the film to YouTube John launched the film on Facebook, holding an on-line virtual world première.
The on-line première turned out to be a bigger success than John imagined and quite a buzz was generated at the time. Since the première the film has been viewed all over the world. The biggest concentration of viewers live in and around Preston and the UK, but it has been watched in France, The United States, Canada, New Zealand, Spain, Romania, The U.A.E., Germany, Oman, Puerto Rico and Australia.

“It’s exciting to see a little idea that began a few months ago develop into a film and then to watch it spread around the world,” said John, “and the music has proved popular in its own right. I’m looking forward to finding out what more people think of the film and the music and hope people share it with their friends and make comments on YouTube”.

TIME MACHINE can be watched here on YouTube  and the music can be listened to separately here on Bandcamp.com

More information about John Hickey’s music and films can be found by following his Facebook page.

Have you seen or heard any of John Hickey’s work before? What is your opinion of TIME MACHINE? Let us know in the comments.