# animate! › Films › Ferment by Tim Macmillan › all › synopses › direction & collaboration › full production credits › film stills › tools & processes › format & distribution › background material

Canonical: https://animate.org.uk/films/ferment/all

Discovery terms: 1990s animation, time-slice photography, urban life, mortality, time, experimental short film, filmmaker, artist

The following is the archived page text; discovery terms above are separately sourced metadata.

Archive status: restored in 2026; historical calls, deadlines and services are closed.

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**Ferment** a film by Tim Macmillan

1999, 5 min

[Film / embedded media](https://www.youtube.com/embed/ci5xQsedMFA)

![Ferment, still](https://animate.org.uk/stillslarge/ferment08.jpg)

sex

### animate! synopsis

A momentary lapse of motion as Macmillan cuts a cross-section through the city’s day. Mobile photography or freeze film? Small epiphanies and the human trace whatever the terms.

### long synopsis

In a quiet city square an old man clutches his chest and falls to the ground, and time stands still. We travel from the square, down streets, through buildings – the human condition unfolds in glimpses of frozen moments.

Tim Macmillan pioneered ‘time-slice’ techniques as a student at Bath Academy of Art and the Slade School. He has used it in a diverse range of works, including gallery installation, natural history, commercials and feature films.

### key credits

**director**
Tim Macmillan

**time slice photography**
Andy Kemp

**editor**
Malcolm MacMillan

**producer**
Grace Kitto

### Tim Macmillan

#### biography

Tim lives near Bath. He made [Ferment](https://animate.org.uk/films/ferment/) for animate! in 1999, using the [time-slice](http://www.timeslicefilms.com/cameras.shtml) image ‘freezing’ technique he developed at the Slade in the 1980’s (and which was subsequently adopted in **The Matrix**).

His gallery work [Dead Horse](http://www.timeslicefilms.com/projects/dead_horse.shtml) won, very unusually for moving image work, a [Citibank Photography Prize](http://www.absolutearts.com/artsnews/2000/02/10/26551.html) nomination. It also attracted the wrath of animal rights fanatics who sent his family hypodermic needles in the post. **Animal Tragic** is a wry response.

Whilst making this film Tim was also busy inventing and developing [Flybot](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwall/3122530.stm) , an aerial robot to explore rainforest tree canopy which launched at the [Eden Project](http://www.edenproject.com/flybot) , Cornwall, in September 2003.

December 2003

### animate! films by this artist

[Animal Tragic](https://animate.org.uk/films/animaltragic/)

[Ferment](https://animate.org.uk/films/ferment/)

#### artist’s website

[Time-Slice Films](http://www.timeslicefilms.com/)

Tim’s production company

### a film by Tim Macmillan

### direction

**director**
Tim Macmillan

### live-action personnel

**time slice photography**
Andy Kemp

### image personnel

**editor**
Malcolm MacMillan

### production personnel

**producer**
Grace Kitto

### support

**primary funding**
Arts Council of England/Channel Four Animate! award

© Tim Macmillan 1999

[![Ferment, still: opening shot 2](https://animate.org.uk/stillslarge/ferment01.jpg)](https://animate.org.uk/stillsfull/ferment01.jpg)

opening shot 2

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*click on image for full size still*

[![Ferment, still: traffic warden](https://animate.org.uk/stillslarge/ferment02.jpg)](https://animate.org.uk/stillsfull/ferment02.jpg)

traffic warden

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*click on image for full size still*

[![Ferment, still: Krust (jaz)](https://animate.org.uk/stillslarge/ferment03.jpg)](https://animate.org.uk/stillsfull/ferment03.jpg)

Krust (jaz)

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*click on image for full size still*

[![Ferment, still: glamour model](https://animate.org.uk/stillslarge/ferment04.jpg)](https://animate.org.uk/stillsfull/ferment04.jpg)

glamour model

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*click on image for full size still*

[![Ferment, still](https://animate.org.uk/stillslarge/ferment05.jpg)](https://animate.org.uk/stillsfull/ferment05.jpg)

busker

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*click on image for full size still*

[![Ferment, still: fight 2](https://animate.org.uk/stillslarge/ferment06.jpg)](https://animate.org.uk/stillsfull/ferment06.jpg)

fight 2

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*click on image for full size still*

[![Ferment, still: sk8 boarder](https://animate.org.uk/stillslarge/ferment07.jpg)](https://animate.org.uk/stillsfull/ferment07.jpg)

sk8 boarder

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*click on image for full size still*

[![Ferment, still](https://animate.org.uk/stillslarge/ferment08.jpg)](https://animate.org.uk/stillsfull/ferment08.jpg)

sex

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*click on image for full size still*

[![Ferment, still](https://animate.org.uk/stillslarge/ferment09.jpg)](https://animate.org.uk/stillsfull/ferment09.jpg)

argument

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*click on image for full size still*

[![Ferment, still](https://animate.org.uk/stillslarge/ferment10.jpg)](https://animate.org.uk/stillsfull/ferment10.jpg)

birth

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*click on image for full size still*

### master copy format

**colour or black & white**
colour

### video distribution format

**video format**
BetaSP

**screen aspect ratio**
4:3

**video standard**
PAL

**sound type**
stereo

### distributor

LUX
[info@lux.org.uk](mailto:info@lux.org.uk)
+44 (0)20 7503 3980
[www.lux.org.uk](http://www.lux.org.uk/)

**Ferment** film, stills and other materials © Tim Macmillan 1999