Editing in Progress

The filming on Saturday went very well I feel, Piotr's editing the footage now. I should hopefully be able to see how it's going at some point today.

Being the 'Creative' or 'Artistic' director of a project is not something I'm used to. It feels distinctly strange not getting my hands dirty (metaphorically speaking) for once.

It's definitely been a learning curve over the course of this project. I've found myself for the first time ever doubting myself a lot more than usual, and thus spending a lot of time researching and not much time making which feels quite wrong. I've definitely learned that it's best to just run with ideas than to worry as much as I have.

I've also learned that when you make a video at this level of standard that there is a LOT involved. I'm used to being able to jump in head first, pursuing a chaotic method of creation. This means I could rely on myself, be in charge at pretty much every step of the way. Relying on and organising such a large group of people never even crossed my mind before. Fortunately Piotr is very experienced in this field and already had contact with the people we needed.

It's a very strange sensation to come up with a central idea and then, with exception of being involved with the fabrication of some of the project and providing feedback or input, completely letting go of the project to other, more experienced hands. Obviously it's necessary, but it takes a hell of a lot of getting used to.

Making the ferrofluid took a lot of hard work and research, but except for that I have to give my thanks largely to the team I was working with - who were all absolutely amazing people. I'll have the full list to upload here soon.

A quick update

I've spent the last week practically tearing my hair out shouting 'HOW THE HELL AM I GOING TO GET THIS DONE ON TIME?!' You see, Diesel dropped out from sponsoring Material and thus I was left up the creek without a paddle - no money, no project.

However, I'm pretty sure things are back on, I've not asked any questions. The feeling around the office is one of progress, and specifically toward MATERIAL. I'm meeting a film maker at 12:00 to discuss various aspects of filming things.

Needless to say I am very excited...

Progress Report

This will probably be reposted having been typeset and with imagery added, but for the moment I thought it should go here as a marker of what I've been doing. It's been a really hectic week and I've had hardly any time to think.

I squeezed my brain like a pimple and this was sprayed all over my computer screen:


MATERIAL: MOVING FASHION AND CULTURE

Brief:

Following work pursued with Six-Creative for Liberty involving London Fashion Week, I have been approached to produce a series of three to four videos to be used as content for the launch of Material.tv - a new web magazine that revolves around ‘moving fashion and culture’. Videos will all relate to a central concept involving the applications and advantages of analogue technology in the digital age.

Alongside video, outcomes will include event-based installations applying the tactility and honesty of analogue process to fashion culture. Examples could include creating dynamic lighting for photo-shoots, creating atmosphere for a catwalk event and alternative techniques for showcasing fashion designers.

References include Troika, UVA, James Houston, Dogme 95, Michel Ghondry, Brazil by Terry Gilliam and the Liver and Lights Scriptorium series of artists' books. The project will also be informed by working with designers in the appropriate field to ground my work.

What's happened so far:



Pixels.

A 3 minute animation that uses the stylisation of early computer came to focus on the movements made by (models specifically? Garments? Catwalk show paraphernalia? The work of Alexander McQueen?). This project relies of detailed animation of simplified figures to a great extent.











Interactive installation.

Original treatment:

interactive show that forces visitors to explore a dimly lit collection using torches. An interactive soudscape not only reacts to the torch beams and guides the visitor, but also informs how the pieces are viewed.

Problems:

No budget yet
Need to find a designer

Possibilities:

Interfacing the installation with twitter or some other live data feed from the net/have the installation send data to a website.

Movement triggered lights - lights turn on when a person passes them





Tesla Coil.

Original concept:

Using super slo-mo, live lightning will be filmed to display the advantages to filming to real thing over an imitation made in after effects. This will be done by controlling the pathway the electrical sparks take to produce specific visuals, for example type.

Issues:

Why build the coil? Why not borrow one? What advantages does building one have?

Could this be extended to other commonly CG effects? Fire? Explosions? Ice? (hot ice)

Tesla-Inspired Project?

Recently I had the good fortune of coming back into contact with an old friend from my home borough of Lewisham. He's just finished his degree in electrical engineering and is excited about doing some collaborative projects. Particularly exciting for me is the fact that he can help me complete the tesla coil I started last year. I'll update this post with a picture of it when I get back home.

...But I digress. It looks likely that I may be able to film the tesla coil at Six-Creative in order to create some visuals for a video. Anyway, enough from me. I'll leave you with Jack White to explain the rest:

Munroe and Frustration

Been making slow progress this weekend, taking it a little easy.

I find myself quite frustrated at the moment because the reason I set myself this brief was to avoid sitting in front of this damn idiot box as much as possible. So far I have spectacularly failed this objective, which causes me great pain.

However progress is being made, and these animations are quite therapeutic to do.

Hopefully some working test animations will be up soon.

Moving Fashion and *Culture*

The 'culture' aspect seeming to be the element I'm being asked to focus more heavily on, I find it interesting to note that Nowness has posted up a video about Jeff Koons. I'm not quite sure yet how this will affect my project, however the 'fashion' side of this story seems a lot less of the focus. I wonder weather a video could be made along similar lines (beginning dialogue about modern art in a popularist way). Modern art tends to be viewed in a pretty cynical manner at the moment by the general public, could confronting this produce a worthwhile video?