A film by Richard Fenwick
Sound Chris Watson
Consulting Scientist Dr Paula Robson-Ansley
Athletes Eoin Everard, Nick Swinburn
Director of Photography Ian Murray
Art Director Paul Thompson
Producer James Baxter, Richard Fenwick
Rotoscope Artist Mike Thomas

Commissioned by AV Festival in partnership with the Department of Sport Sciences, Northumbria University and Animate Projects

Supported by a Welcome Trust Arts Award

Exhaustion chronicles a professional athlete’s journey from rest, to exhaustion, and recovery.

Exhaustion was filmed in epic detail and extreme slow motion at up to 1,000 frames per second, with Chris Watson’s recording capturing real-time data from both inside and outside the athlete’s body.

For the imagery our athlete was running on a stripped-down treadmill in a blacked out space. We used a Phantom Flex slow motion camera with anamorphic lenses and shot him at between 250 and 1,000 frames per second with a variety of lenses.

For the sound we recorded data signals from our athlete via a variety of sources including; Cortex Gas Analyser, Electromyography, Electrocardiography and Near-infrared spectroscopy, as well as acoustic sound taken from within the physical space. The data streams were then converted into sound by sound designer, Chris Watson, and composited along with the acoustic sound to form our soundscape.

Watson is one of the world's leading recorders of wildlife and natural phenomena. He was born in Sheffield and was a founding member of the influential Sheffield-based experimental music group, Cabaret Voltaire. His sound recording career began in 1981 when he joined Tyne Tees Television. Since then he has developed a particular and passionate interest in recording the wildlife sounds of animals, habitats and atmospheres from around the world. As a freelance recordist for film, TV and radio, Chris Watson specialises in natural history and documentary location sound together with track assembly and sound design in post production.