The Infinity Box

Last Saturday lunchtime, I dined with a delightful lady whose right-side was painted white and whose left-side was painted black. I urged her to not spill the beetroot soup, for its resemblance to blood, be-spattered over her gothic-inspired black and white costume would take her already terrifying appearance over the level that would cause me to flee.

I had assumed, rightly or wrongly, that this was not a stray spirit loosed in the castle basement, but an actor taking part in the filming of "The Infinity Box" at Balintore Castle over the weekend.

Joel, the director of the project had made contact with me through a mutual friend called Karen. When I dealt with Karen she was an antique dealer; when Joel dealt with Karen she was a Bollywood location scout in Scotland. All this goes to illustrate that each of us can do many things in life. One of my personal bêtes noir, is that a CV has to show a career path struck in a single discipline rut.

Anyhow, the film cast and crew were lovely and though one might feel one is not part of that world, you have to realise that not all members of the team will have worked together before, so they are open to meeting new people including oneself. And indeed, we all share a deep love of film.

The scenario of the 15 minute film, which forms just part of a multi-media art project, makes little sense to me, but here goes. A Scottish maker was commissioned to create a hand-written book. Another Scottish maker was tasked with creating a hand-woven fabric bag in which the book is placed. Another Scottish maker was tasked with creating a box, in which the bag and ultimately the film/DVD will be placed.

The filmed sequence features two creatures: one inside the mirror in a parallel universe and one in front of the mirror in the real world: very much in the tradition of "Alice through the Looking Glass" and Jean Cocteau. I know no more, but will be fascinated to view the resulting film sequence which was shot entirely in the "Gentleman's Dressing Room" at the castle.

the shoot

It was interesting to observe how much of the production effort took place in the corridor outside the "studio" as the crew studied monitors, etc

technicians in the corridor

Here are some images from the black and white production.

the result

Book your tickets now!

Cineastes amongst us will not fail to note the commonality with the similarly named British technicolour film "The Magic Box" (1951) and the Star Trek episode "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" (1969).

still from "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield"