This article will be going over the creation of my film ‘Pills’. I have wanted to make a film that went back to one of the central pillars in my chance discussions, prompts, for a while now. There is something pure and simple about it, especially when you do not have a long time to plan what you are going to do.
For some context, this film is a series of mini explorations into chance using magazine cutouts as prompts — various words I found such as ‘wool’ or ‘nature’, with no real concrete theme. These prompts were put into pill capsules, and then into a children’s crane game. The crane game was how the prompts were selected, including how many were chosen at once.
Near the start of my journey looking into chance operations, I did a similar activity in Patrycja Loranc’s PhD workshop. In this workshop, I got obsessed with my wife’s prompt ‘circles’. I saw circles everywhere after the workshop, which led to my film ‘Circles’ being made. I am doing something similar in my own PhD research too — just looking at the results from a different angle.
The children’s crane game used in the film is a ‘Downton Candy Arcade’ which I found in the Cancer Research charity shop on Mutley Plain on the 17th of June 2025. When used, it plays the most atrocious music at a really loud volume. Originally my plan was to use the music and crane operating noises in the film but seeing how much of a sensory nightmare it was on the day of filming my mind was changed.
(While doing research on this machine for the article, I found an alternative model of the machine… It is beckoning me to use it in a film…)
The ‘pills’ were ‘Clear Gelatine Hard Capsules’. They came in a pack of a thousand and have been sitting unused in a drawer since September 2021. The project they were originally intended for never came to fruition.
The prompts inside these pills were cut out from various magazines, including Homes and Antiques (February, 1997), Nature’s Home (February, 2014), BBC Countryfile (January, 2021), a Pets at Home magazine (2025), an old copy of Guitar World, and many others which are destroyed beyond recognition. These were all charity shop purchases as well (from Oxfam on Mutley Plain).
Many of the books I had already desecrated when working on collage work for the ‘Artemis Collective: Nude Not Rude exhibition’. I still have the books, waiting to be used for something else in the future.
When it came to selecting the prompts, there were only two real criteria: 1) The words had to be a good size — not too large to not fit in the pill, and not too small to be illegible. 2) I did not want the same word twice. In, for example, the Pets at Home magazine, the word ‘pet’ comes up a lot. I did not want this type of thing to cause the prompt pool to lean too much a certain way.
I really enjoy the act of these old artefacts reappearing in new contexts. I like to imagine the journey of these random objects I find in charity shops. The idea that they have a life before I find them, and after they have been put into a film, that is always a part of what they are. The objects become almost sanctified (to me).
The issue becomes though that I have a lot of random things in the house that I do not want to part with though!
The full prompt pills were made on the 23rd of June 2025, before Madelen came over to Plymouth (as seen in ‘Communication’). Obviously, I had to pause the pill project and prioritise that!
The day of filming was the 21st of September 2025. Isobel, Louis, Sammy, and Steven (Moof) were present. Noodle and Toffee were there too, very much enjoying the company of everyone (thank you everyone for helping out).
No one had any idea of what was going to happen before they arrived. I put out a general open call on my Discord server to see if anyone wanted to make something and hang out together.
I very intentionally wanted to prioritise people having fun over getting the job done. I had created my piece ‘Young Me’ just before this took place, and in this film, I spoke about how I used to be bossy as a kid with filmmaking and how this led to negativity all around.
Because ‘Young Me’ had forced me to confront my earlier need for control, I deliberately set out to make ‘Pills’ the opposite — a stress-free, collective play session. When having fun with everyone, something cool got made. There is, and was, no need to stress.
This process of ‘looking back in order to look more resolutely forward’ has been a very rewarding aspect of my filmmaking journey.
So yes, we had a good time. We drank, and we smoked, and the coherence of what we were doing fell off a cliff. Alternatively, you could say what we were doing became more intuitive. A ‘this solves the problem of the prompt’ type of thinking.
We (at Louis’ wise advice), only opened up the pills after we recorded each section, as to not have favouritism, or do something out of order, etc. I think this was great. It meant the way in which the whole day kept developing was a continuous surprise.
It is interesting how these chance scenarios act as a social lubricant. It is a ‘okay, so we are all doing this now’ situation. There are no real expectations from anyone or set plan. I also really enjoy how the brainstorming is so open. Everyone made suggestions which changed the course of each film’s creation. I think because the prompts are random, the project is no one’s baby. It instantly becomes all of ours collectively — shared ritual of discovery.
The music that was playing during the crane game sequences is ‘umumumu’ by Fania Katz who is an illustrator and musician from Berlin. I really like their stuff.
If their music sounds familiar, they were also behind the song that happens during the wind-up sequence in ‘Tinguely Feeling’. The one with all the wolf noises in it.
‘Pills’ follows a similar format to ‘Tinguely Feeling’, where it is a standardised process, followed by a non-sequitur — so having the music be a tie-in to this felt right. Also, there are links to non-human, robotic agency too between the pieces (especially with the crane arm seeming to do what it wants, such as spinning like crazy or only picking up one prompt).
I like that the music acts as a sort of palette cleanser — a mental reset. A way to easily signify that ‘that section is done; you will get something new and different next’.
In terms of some set design information, the backdrop for the pill machine was just two pieces of pretty wrapping paper I found at Oxfam.
I have been thinking more about the idea that ‘what is on the screen counts as what is real’. I watched ‘The Phoenician Scheme’ and really enjoyed it, and this led me down a bit of a Wes Anderson rabbit hole, thinking about how he makes great films with a small budget. I always think about the scene on the train in particular — how minimalist it is.
I feel that thinking within those constraints allows you to be more creative. Oh, and another nice thing with the wrapping paper was that it was just rolled back up so it could be used again.
One more thought before I go over each of the prompt scenes: I like the effect that was created with the pills in the background being slow, and the overlay being fast — during the reveal of what the prompt was. There is something jarring about it in a good way. It allows a very busy scene to not come across as messy and making the text displayed illegible.
Prompt 1) Annual Systems Building Awareness.
This scenario was about a bunch of technology which had gained sentience, holding an annual meeting to welcome new ‘systems’ into the fold. You can tell they are sentient, because they have googly eyes, obviously. It was being chaired by a Playstation One, with a camera, laundry machine, and crane game in attendance. The new member, a pink vibrator, is being introduced, which gets derailed by the camera making inappropriate remarks.
This is me telling on myself a little bit, but I think that is good (no one is perfect and honesty is refreshing). I think it is very interesting that in a scenario where we created masculine and feminine robots, this mere existence of different ‘gender states’ causes sexism to exist.
Yes, this is our own biases, or at least perceived possible biases, being passed onto characters. However, the characters share many of our systems, such as speaking English and having some of our customs (greetings, holding meetings), therefore it seems inevitable that other human traits would pass over as well.
It makes me think that if gender exists, then there will always be a divide. The same can be said for race, religion, etc. Having an ‘other’ seems to always cause friction and/or subjugation — the level of ire, and who gets pushed further away though wanes with the times.
Though I know I am quite radical as I want the idea of gender abolished or not distinguished — for us all just to be blobby, non-identified people. It is why I see myself as non-binary, not necessarily because I do not feel masculine, but because I feel feminine too, and I believe everyone feels both — It’s just that the freedom and comfort to express these feelings are societally limited. Anyways, off my soapbox.
It was jarring when looking back at the recording, how less awkward it was than I had internalised. There were some two second chunks of silence which felt like an eternity in the moment — time dilated. It is so messed up that this stuff existed only in my head (as far as I know). The brain really knows how to bully itself.
I felt quite guilty for not giving Louis and Sammy more to work with — I know that is part of chance, disruption and working with limitations, but putting this on others can be a bit jarring. Though, especially when watching the raw clips back, it was way less bad than I remembered.
The googly eyes are still on most of the objects. The Playstation now watches us in the living room every day from behind a cage, hoping to be let free.
Prompt 2) Inflation
This scenario had a lot less prep work — It was pretty much me on camera, inflating and deflating a green balloon which was chromakeyed later. It was a situation of ‘trust in the edit’ and ‘this is a future me problem’.
This was a lot of fun to play with in the edit, with the process reminding me of editing ‘Eggistential’. The effect of myself getting ‘recaptating’ when the balloon gets chromakeyed is very interesting. There are lots of cool effects present in this. I would like to play with balloons and chromakey again.
Originally there was going to be a money aspect added to it as well. Near the end of the filming, we drew a dollar sign on the balloon, but in the edit I felt that the concept was getting a bit bloated. It was good enough as it were.
The audio used in this section was ‘Blueberry Inflation ASMR’ by Arwee. I used the prompt to search for the music as well. I also added an ‘inflation noise’ to add a timing to the clips.
I really like with this that it is so hard to know how many clips are actively on top of each other. I feel like you could easily play with this idea more, especially with the balloon right on the camera lens. Having several different clips of someone breathing in and out with a green balloon, with different things going on in the background, different settings, etc. Seeing how many of them can line up. I feel like it would be interesting.
Prompt 3) On the Water: Peeping through Nature’s Wool Attack: Great website further afield — timeless appeal.
The composition of this section came about quite quickly — it was very much stream of conscious.
We grabbed some of Isobel’s green wool to satisfy ‘nature’, and well… ‘wool’. We thought about it being this great monster on a lake, that we were ‘peeping through’ a hole to look at. The googly eyes from the ‘self-awareness’ prompt were added to the wool monster to give it some life.
There is a concept I have been thinking about which I would like to give its own article to, but it’s the idea that ‘ideas’ are sticky, or have gravity to them. Once something is discovered, it is hard to put down.
The piece taking place on the water made me think about using Phaedra’s audio from ‘Ask the Water’ , the piece she submitted to Wiro Mag AQUA (Where I submitted ‘AQUA’). This also ticked off ‘website’ and ‘further afield’ since she was so far away.
Thanks for giving me permission Phaedra!! ❤
I’m not sure we got ’timeless appeal’. I originally wanted to make it black and white, to kind of make it evoke that this was an older piece of media being watched today, but I really liked the colours, so this was dropped. I especially liked the pretty accident of the water twinkling. I put this anomaly at the forefront at the end of the section.
I enjoy that at the end of the section, with Phaedra’s audio, it kind of looks like the creature drowns for a second. Fun accident.
Prompt 4) Rules In Your Garden: Snow Inspiration — Roam Wild Hills
This one was chaotic! This scenario was filmed in my back yard (which is so small, but it’s the closest thing we have to a ‘garden’).
It uses freesound audio of a hillside in Chile (by felix.blume). All the barking in the background kept setting Toffee off during the edit. The music was ‘Relaxing Music — The Grasslands’ by NightWolfCFM.
The section has mountain footage overlayed. When I downloaded the .MP4 from Youtube, it glitched like crazy, so that glitch was implemented. I originally wanted it to feel serene, which was quickly made less possible.
I think it is very interesting that the ‘snow’ we made, was pretty much the same things as were inside the pills. It makes me think about how this whole process of chance, filming, editing, production histories are similar in a way. A cyclical process. It would be nice to ‘encapsulate’ these ideas we wrote down and use them in a ‘Pills 2’ at some point in the future. I would like for everyone’s ideas to live on in this capacity.
I also thought it was worth having the ‘coming up with ideas’ as part of the ‘ideas’ or ‘inspiration’ element, rather than just the artefacts. This filming made the meta-part of the process become more comfortable, which led directly into how the section ‘New Zealand David’ was executed. Again, the stickiness of chance ideas.
What Louis brought up about “human primacy”, which I echoed with Anthrocentric (even though AnthroPOcentric is the proper way to say it, but whatever), created the overall energy of the section. All of our ideas are deeply linked to us as people (which sort of echoes the thoughts around Prompt 1). Everything we think of as an idea is built upon what makes us, us — for better or for worse. “We make the rules” as we literally are sat there MAKING the rules.
I like that in the final section, where all the ideas are put close to the camera, serious ideas like ‘CONSUMPTION’ and ‘FREEDOM’ are sat next to ‘toffee apples’. It gives these ideas a weight that is equal, which I think in reality is true. Hierarchy is a socially constructed system. It all mirrors my PhD study, that all concepts are just nodes that are connected to everything else — no top or bottom in terms of start or finish, just there.
Prompt 5) New Zealand David
The laugh Isobel and I had while opening these prompts was a highlight of the day.
I enjoyed the idea of this one the most on the day, but I am not sure how well executed it is. I like the ‘live, reaction included discovery’ of it. We had no idea what it would be while filming, and this was captured in situ.
It turns out that ‘New Zealand David was ‘David Seymour’, the 21st Deputy Prime Minister of New Zealand. This is something I had not fully realised until I typed these words out just now.
It is morbidly fun reading about the political-right in other countries. Learnt a bit about the ACT as a result. It was very interesting to watch some politics and have no clue who any of the people are — without the societal stakes of watching situations you are invested in.
At this point, we were all so exhausted, and I think that is reflected in my lack of reflections here. It just kind of happened.
………………………………
This project resulted in me learning something on the editing side of filmmaking. The file would not render at all. It froze whenever the prompts were being opened. I think it struggled with the chromakey and the number of colours, but that’s just an assumption on my end. I learnt that rendering via CPU is often better, but slower. The acceleration from the GPU breaks it. Very good to know for next time.
There are three more thoughts I would like to expand upon before I say adieu.
Thought 1: Recurring Theme of Chance Bubbles
I am finding it very interesting that the same motifs keep appearing in my work — a collection of orbs scattered everywhere, often representing chance. I mentioned this prior with ‘Ga’chance’ and ‘Tinfoil Candy’ mirroring each other in some ways.
The same could be said now with the pills in this piece.
Maybe the buttons in ‘Tinguely Feeling’ too (or is that a stretch?)
While I am mostly joking, I do wonder if there is some deep psychological understanding I have come to about chance, which is intuitive in nature, but requires a lot of exploration in order to properly articulate — that the patterns emerge only after enough differential exposure.
I have always thought that the answers to most of life’s questions are all around us, but we just have not been able to connect them. The ‘Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon’, but for everything.
If I view chance interactions as node based, with webs interlinking, then pills with concepts inside are a nice analogy, and multiple being selected, is a good example of serendipity and lateral thinking.
[As a side tangent, as far as I know my Kevin Bacon score is 4. Kevin Bacon was in ‘My One and Only’ with Troy Garity. Troy Garity was in ‘Sabotage’ with Arnold Schwarzenegger. Arnold Schwarzenegger trained with my grandfather in South Africa for the 1975 Mr. Olympia. My grandfather and I are well… Family. I think that counts? I may have a closer connection. Do you know Kevin Bacon? If I could lower my score it would be good for my LinkedIn.]
Thought 2: Chance as Pharmakon
It is fun to think of chance as both a potential cure and poison. The use of pills in this film can be seen as an apt metaphor: each capsule promises meaning, but also uncertainty.
The prompts stimulate imagination, yet they also destabilise control and structure. Like a pill found on the sidewalk, when walking up and taking it, you have no clue what it does until you ingest it.
This aligns with my ‘agency control’ definition of chance. The pill is an object of voluntary surrender.
[Another tangent and recommendation. Firstly, do not eat pills/tablets off the ground. As much as I endorse a chaotic world of ‘whatever happens, happens’, that I do not want on my conscious (or at least connected to me!). Secondly, I have done just that. When I was a kid in South Africa, our school had a ‘tuck shop’, a place for kids to buy sweets during break. I never brought money to school as a kid, so I used to pick up random bits of candy off the floor. I did this for years, until I picked up a small pink tablet and put it in my mouth. It was bitter. I knew instantly that this was actually some kind of medication. I did not do that anymore.]
Thought 3: Ideas are Forever
It is interesting how this piece, as well as a few others I have made, feel like time folds in on itself. The prompts in this piece coming from (mostly) the 1990s, the pills being from 2021, the filming taking place in 2025. The past, the present, and the future are not that different from each other, and inseparably linked. Everything from the past has potential to shape the present. And everything we do or leave behind now, has the potential to shape the future. Not only that, but the ways in which we live now, or will live later, shapes the way in which we view the past.
I like that these pills work as a form of time machine. One that transports ideas from the past into the present. Taking the prompts which we made during this filmmaking process, and encapsulating them, will transport them into the future.
No ideas really die. They just sit dormant until the right situation revives them, often in a new light.
………………………………
And with that, I am done.
That is a lie of a sentence really, because I have 21 articles in the backburner which I want to get to (yes, I counted). I really have been enjoying documenting my process and seeing how my ideas morph with each iteration. It has become vaguely additive. See you, my phantom reader, in a week with a new article, or tomorrow, or yesterday, or never again, or never at all.
Brandon John Barnard 
Leave a comment