Behind the Scenes

The first fashion film shoot for the year happened yesterday on a mostly sunny day (thankfully) at Ballast Point Park where we had model Sarah Elizabeth of Priscillas running about in Callista Potts swimwear and abseiling off a big rusty water tank! check out the lovely Maja Baska's behind the scenes shots of some of the action that went down here. Amazing!

New Blog

Check out my all new blog I've begun in conjunction with my major project for university, a website dedicated to the creation of new fashion media called ABSORB. It will be a visual feast of amazing, elaborate shoots and videos with yours truly at the helm as creative director. But for now all the behind the scenes stuff is going up on the blog so click on the link below:

http://absorbblog.wordpress.com

feel free to leave comments etc!

And the website will be launched at the end of november!!!!!!

More slow motion moderat

Moderat "Les Grandes Marches" from Pfadfinderei on Vimeo.

Another Moderat video clip, this time with an amazing sequence of exploding concrete pylons. The detail is incredible, and the clip has a slow build up that really draws out the suspense until the action unfolds. The anticipation it creates does pay off, and the visual effect is rather mesmerising to watch. The collaboration with the BAM institute for material research in Germany (who among other things test the impact of aeroplanes on buildings) is behind this film, creating the concrete to be detonated under high pressure. Its a very stark and simple video, and for that it is also striking, and seems to be the signature aesthetic for Moderat's music.

Fabric and Film

Moderat "Rusty Nails" from Pfadfinderei on Vimeo.

This videoclip for Moderat capitalises on the sensuous and sculptural form that fabric can take. Beautifully shot, it has that indulgent element with the flowing fabric while also looking thoroughly modern with the camera technique and black background. Really lovely.

Soundsuits

Amazing and inspirational. The work of Nick Cave is like an explosion of energy and imagination, combining the visually extraordinary, wearable art pieces with the idea of movement. Coming from a dance background, and teaching fashion in Chicago, he plays with modifying the body and extending it through clothing and how one then moves when wearing one of his Soundsuits. The name came about after realising what sounds were being produced when he put the first one on - it was an unintentional outcome. What has resulted is a whole-body experience that incorporates all the senses and is truly arresting to watch.

The capabilities of cameras

Great new music video by Paul Blake for Parisien DJ Knuckles (now called Sovnger), shot using an Olympus i-SPEED 3. The slow motion editing is excellent, you get the delayed flickering lights of the Paris metro, the still-sharp detail in each shot while filmed in motion, and the well executed interplay between slow and sped up footage. This particularly interested me, having just shot a video using slow motion editing on another dig camera, so it was good to see how it comes out with the different camera. The fact that digital still cameras can now shoot video that looks this good makes the possibilities endless and really mobilises the digital camera even further. It is becoming so that you really only need one mechanism for a whole array of imaging functions. Which is interesting, as i was talking today with someone about the fact that people need to be multi-taskers today; it is not really enough to specialise in one area any more, and it seems the more skill bases you can add to your cap the better. That said, this video is definitely one to watch.

KNUCKLES | BLAKE - WHAT I LIKE from Paul Bryan on Vimeo.

For an extremely comprehensive record of the whole shooting process from storyboarding to finish, have a look at Paul Bryan's site: http://www.pmbryan.com/knuckles.html

Ali Larrey

You can find some amazing things in the Behance network. While doing some research for a photo shoot, i came upon the work of Ali Larrey, an art director, set designer, and floral designer based in Madrid. Her work is opulent, evoking historical excess through her compositions and love of decoration. I put up a few images here of a spread called The Atelier, these ones in particular caught my eye for the styling and the poses of the model. I particularly like the bathtub image for its colours and semi-quirky positioning.

THE ATELIER
LUCÍA SE CASA Magazine
Photographer: Antonio Cordero
Stylist: Abraham Gutiérrez
Set Design: Ali Larrey & Enrique Ferrero

http://www.alilarrey.com/

Fashion Journalism redux

New tracks in the world of SHOWstudio's take on fashion communication: the idea of a magazine feature comes to life on screen, with collaborator Alex Fury delivering a journalistic style commentary on the meanings and significance of the new season Prada shoes and stockings. This is yet another application of the idea of film coming into fashion, and i think this could definitely be expanded upon as a different approach to fashion reporting - even for fashion blogging. It shows that the esoteric side of fashion can still be presented in an engaging way, and that the wealth of fashion theory and knowledge - that is established and continues to grow - may have an outlet other than in an academic text or journal. While the video could not be embedded away from the site, click on the image below to go to their viewing page, as part of their Object fetish series.

Montage Mayhem

Recently been inspired by the photomontage-style artwork of Lisa Eisner for an upcoming project. The kaleidoscopic images layer photographs of nature and landscape, resulting in a new way of looking at our surroundings. They are colourful and detailed, harking back to the psychadelic aesthetics of the 60s, and rooted in the native Americans' connection to nature. She refrains from using photoshop, constructing hand-assembled images that have a sense of randomness yet a deliberate assemblage.
The works are currently on show as part of her Psychonaut exhibition at M + B Gallery, in Los Angeles, until June 5, which also features an installation work and 'scent sculptures'.

Images from Nowness and M+B Gallery

Rockabilly Love

I came across this editorial from Blend Magazine on the Design Scene website here.
They struck me most particularly for the hair - a little bit Chanel of recent catwalk shows, but with this rockabilly vibe that comes through with some of the styling - like the catseye sunglasses and small check shirt, the bouffant fringes. Some of the crotch-grabbing positions are a little unexpected, it seems that the shoot switches between a more innocent look with the hair and some quite romantic outfits, to these sexed-up photos which makes me a little confused about that they are really intending in this shoot. There is an obvious lack of narrative, or otherwise the theme that was intended has become lost. All the same, some very nice elements within each photo.

Credits:
Magazine: Blend Magazine
Fashion Editor: Sonny Groo
Styling: Venus Waterman
Hair: Hester Wernert For Mogeen
Make-up: Adrien Pinault |Calliste|
Models: Cicely Telman & Michelle Westgeest |Paparazzi Model Management| and Jorg van der Ham |Republic|
Photography by Petrovsky & Ramone