"I treated it as if I was scoring a movie and tried to highlight the drama and pace of the film with

What started los angeles county board of supervisors 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 los angeles county board of supervisors 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.”
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”.
“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”.
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”.
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