Shot on Video – An old/new collection. – The Wade Radford Archive

Video8 and Hi8 video format, why have I been working on it?

I’m rekindling a romance from my formative years. When I was a kid I recorded everything on these shot on video formats. My Dad would first take a cam everywhere we went, then I started pinching his early 90s camera to make little films with friends. I recorded a lot of my teenage years on them, and finally ended up going around the country filming a ‘teen ghost investigating’ series ; one investigation of which became my documentary ‘The Busby & Me’ this year – never would I ever have considered one of those investigations would be a time capsule of a place now defunct.

(Poetry on 8 Tape – Wade and the transporter bridge, Middlesbrough)

After doing that documentary, I was desperate to use them cameras again, to make some SOV short films. In 2014 I had made one called ‘Boys on 8 Tape’ , I knew from that, that I could combine the format to make some more short, avant-garde films. It represented a certain freedom, knowing these films may only appeal to a select nostalgic few, and these projects have been because ‘I wanted to’ rather than ‘I feel I should’. I’ve long been fed up of the independent filmmaking format; I just wanted to be creative and have some fun with these films with no pressure about appealing to audience expectations, or because a distributor wanted me to do something!

Since last October I have turned out the LGBT shorts ‘Discreetest 2000’ , and ‘Dreamland’. My poetry combinations on film have included ‘Poetry on 8 Tape’ , and ‘Good Luck Getting Through This’ – then there’s ’Arse Talk’ – crass, blunt and full of fury!

I’m still working on some projects yet!

(Wade & Lewis as ‘Billy & Jack’ in Dreamland)

‘Wade on 8’ Volume I is out in a matter of weeks – you can order it here.

It includes four of the short films aforementioned, with a Volume II to follow – which increases the ‘experimental’ vibe a lot!

(View – Loch Ness , from ‘Good Luck Getting Through This!’)

The projects don’t disguise their diy approach, the filmmaking isn’t ambiguous, they are the product you see before you. For me it is about using these handheld cameras to focus on connection. Connections between the characters, or images mixed with words. They are meant to make you feel like you’re in the room with the characters, apart of something you shouldn’t be – looking into a window that belongs to others. It’s meant to make you feel like you’re watching your father’s captured footage from bygone long ago.