White Point explores the crossover between the technical process of recording image and sound, and the expressive gestures which emerge when both are combined with the spoken word.

White Point Screenings here

A deer makes an appearance through a white point

While filming in Hermitage Castle in the Scottish Borders, the white point was set on my iPhone camera and the exposure dialled in and out, using the touch screen. The Scottish writer Dorothy Alexander gave her response to this material, in her native Scots tongue. The subsequent recording of her performance inhabits the film produced.

The experience of catching words and phrases through their performance, with the subtleties of expression, their similarity and sometimes the strangeness of unfamiliar forms of speech, forms part of the poetry; the image and spoken word comprise the poetry.

When filming with a digital camera, the white point, is the digital reference to the available light.

Poem in Scots 

"Hart cut solid in licht 

sliced mortared moss 

and ticht-built stanes 

till een stepped oot wi blades"

English Translation 

"Hart cut solid in light. 

sliced mortared moss 

and tight-built stones 

till eyes stepped out with blades"

German Translation  (by Silke Jahn)

"Hirsch geschnitten solide in licht 

fein gehauen gemörtelt moos 

und dicht gebaute steine 

bis zum messergeschärften blick"

In the German version of this film, the translation has been produced to heighten some of the correspondences between Scots, English and German and to respect the poetic meaning.

Scots is a Germanic Language in origin. The presentation of the original text in Scots and its translation into English (or German), is to enable the audience to follow the correspondences of the original Scots with the English/German language. The languages bare many resemblances, however, the performance in Scots may be less accessible than the written word to those whose mother tongue is not English, or for those who are unfamiliar with Scots.