Him and His Doll

You can skip down to the bottom of this post for a film clip from the session, or enjoy some behind-the-scenes photos & stories below..




It all started, as a lot of these thing seem to do, in front of a Tube station. Whitechapel, in fact, and the occasion was another photoshoot with Andraz Blaznik. The plan was to get a short film & story together about an overly self-conscious young lad and his early xmas present - a more-than-just-lifelike doll.

Other than Andy & myself, the crew consisted of Barbara for makeup, Kelly & Mikael as models, Linda as the coproducer and Katja as the indespensible assistant. Following the makeup process (I am sometimes just so thankful for not being a girl), we dove right in. Although winter was just stepping in, the first set was an outdoors one, which was too cold for comfort even for the ones of us that were wearing gloves & actual clothes.. Can't even begin to imagine what it was like for the models..

The set followed the makebelieve world of the guy character and his adventures with his new companion, including a bath, a rooftop, and of course the bedroom...

Alas, the relentless stare of the doll did eventually prove to be too much for the guy to bare, but at least we did get to enjoy a fireworks display from the terrace over the 2012 site..

But a picture tells a thousand words, the film is bound to tell so much more:



Me and My Doll

Venesia

I spent this October 1st at the architectural biennale in Venice (or Venesia, as the place is called in venetian). The trip was loads of fun, we went with some friends, made a day of it, went on a boat (hell yeah!), and saw a bunch of stuff.. These biennales (biennali?) seem to be getting softer every year (or every other year, rather). They used to be a full-day test of endurance & stamina, as there was waaaay more stuff to do than could possibly be done in a single day. And yet, they seem to be getting more comfortable every time? Last time we briskly skimmed over everything, after attending Piran days the day before. And yet survived to tell the tale without even so much as a blister...

The team.. a bit of sitting down sure feels good after a full day of Architecture.
Actually there were 6 of us there that day, but that's another story...

This year we even managed to explore some never-before-seen pavillions (and, to be honest it doesn't look like I've been missing too much up to now...), and the Cypriot exhibition next door was nothing if not fun. After that we even managed to take a stroll through some of the less-visited islands in the lagoon. We found a couple of dead-ends we weren't looking for, and what we were actually looking for remains to be found. But we even managed to squeeze in an majestic afternoon pint with a delicious view (or was it the other way around?).

The Belgian carpet and Ito's Taichung opera house

As for the exhibitions themselves... The lack of exhaustion doesn't correlate to the lack of inspiration. For one, the Belgian (I think?) exhibition was downright hilarious. They touched up on a subject that has been passively entertaining me for some time now - actual lives of architectural elements. By taking used carpets, wall panels and such and displaying them in their soiled true form. Along with the grime, footsteps, sweat and all the rest that accumulates in architectures. But somehow makes it nicer than the swankiest rendering. Like a good, worn-in Chesterfield in the corner of a dimly-lit bar can't really ever be replaced by a plasticky shell (okay, to be honest, if they made ones that actually fit taller people properly, the choice wouldn't be quite as easy).

On the other hand, projections of future carpets were quite nicely summed up with Ito's opera house. It will probably hopefully become an excellent (not to forget mammoth) proof-of-concept. Although the magic of generated / naturesque(!) geometries is surely lost at this scale, the architectural endeavour is not not-praiseworthy. Keywords such as self-supporting, permeating, featherlight, optimized, etc... just don't work at this scale. Very much like a wing just won't carry a plane once it hits a certain size. Despite looking like a sponge from a fictional helicopter three football fields away, it really is just another building. At it will be having soiled carpets at some point. (But they will have been soiled by glossy shoes! :) )

 Scandinavia's best and an architectural oasis

Going back to basics, I'm blown away by the Scandinavian pavilion every single time. The volume, the light, the proportions... the ceiling.. the ludicrous windows.. the not-irrelevant-but-still-fun (this time with free beer, apparently!) exhibitions.. the tree... And, at another part of the whole affair, a slice of pure architecture. A constructed oasis, of course.. Not without predecessors, the oasis could be read in one of many ways. Of course, such architecture is not without political and sociological implications, but who wouldn't want an exodus and become a voluntary prisoner therein? ;-)


However alongside the architectural bewilderment, there was an experiment underway. Having been recently tainted with film making, I've decided to switch my camera settings to 30 fps rather than the usual 0.01, and look around for nice stuff. I still find the ratio of time spent compared to final product length fascinating. In the past I've spent weeks trying to get a single rendering together, but that somehow made sense.. But tying frames, time, synchronisation, colours, motion, a story and random events together is just something else...
But you only get better by trying, so here it is...

Venesia

 

:)

A tale of Pimps and Bananas

You can skip down to the bottom of this post for a film clip from the session, or enjoy some behind-the-scenes photos & stories below..



A title that warrants some puzzlement and, hopefully, intrigue, I know... But it makes all the sense in the world. The tale goes that photographer Andraz Blaznik had an idea for a project. It was to include pimps, cigars, bling, high heels and stockings. Needless to say, I was interested. :)

It all started off innocently enough. Getting to the location in Hackney in East London, setting up the equipment, a quick strategic plan, a couple of biscuits, and we started!

There were quite a few people involved, actually. From left, there's Sašo (whose involvement (or lack thereof) I'll be getting back to in some detail later on), yours truly and Tomas Bohinc.

Barbara Mensah was our makeup artist, who brought along a suitcase or two of equipment. One might think that's a bit over the top, but then again what she was asked to do wasn't just put on a bit of lipstick.

She was to transform N for her role, which included a rather larger-than-usual makeup scheme.

 

Once the costume & makeup came together (if the odd bits still sticking out are neglected) N ended up being a rather lovely (and entertaining) banana.

Following the process closely, of course were the boys - Andraz the photographer and Tomas the pimp. Guess which is which.

Eventually we got off to some photography. This included portraits, group shots and, most importantly, the storyline shots. Those are covered in the film at the end of this post.

Them pimps.. Got all the love of the bananas, and this is how they repay them.. Tsk, tsk..

Which is perhaps why eventually the banana decided to take thing into her own hands. Or, under her own heels, rather. She even threatened to use her cane if people kept taking her biscuits.

 Of course, being at the Regent's Canal, all this commotion did attract quite a crowd. Strange, that...

We did manage to calm our banana down eventually and she became as adorable as before.

Of course this story looks quite different through Andraz's camera.. But that one doesn't show the lovely hoodie that N is sporting in some of the pictures, namely of UK's 2010 TJF/Jujitsu National Randori champions ;)

Of course I had to pitch in my five cents, or pence, rather, bossing the people around (and airplanes by the looks of it). But don't be fooled by Sašo to the left in red, looking like he's working...

The thing is, Sašo dropped in. Apparently there wasn't anything on TV at the time. (Or there was no TV? Or Internet? Or neighbours? :D)

But he was hired on the spot (for lack of a better word) as an assistant. Not a really tough job, one would think. And not really that much to do, to be honest. Yet still, he decided he'd rather have a beer than hold up a flash or two. He even held one of the cameras for a while to make himself look like he was busy...

 He then decided to have a spot of lunch, seeing as he's had a hard day so far... And tried on the banana costume as well...

He even took on the job of entertaining (well, I say entertaining.. It was actually hugging) some of our other guests/spontaneous helpers. But even Harpreet eventually saw through his feeble attempts at not working ...

Eventually he was given a task that he and N would enjoy. (Although perhaps not for the same reasons ;) )

But to be honest, he did play his part in the end (though not straining himself) and it wouldn't have been quite as entertaining without him on the set...


Although that's not the end of the story quite yet. Seeing as I've taken quite a few photos (as you can see.. otherwise these comments wouldn't have been very sensible) and film clips as well, the idea was to combine them all and share them with you fine people of the Internets.
 

Now, to be honest, there were quite a few clips. More than list above, and that was after a bit of cleanup. And, unfortunately, they don't lend themselves to showing quite as effortlessly as photos do..

So I've decided to complicate my life a bit by making a title scene. But what would fit the topic, the place and the style best? Well, graffiti of course. But, strangely enough, I didn't spot any graffiti to do with pimps or bananas when we were there.. So I did a bespoke piece of digital graffiti.

Of course going out with a couple of spray cans just wouldn't do (one is far too civilized for that). Or using just a standard typeface... No, instead I opted for a massive, heavy, 3d sign with ludicrously exaggerated perspective, a pinch of gloss and a cup of depth.

And as I was doing it,I though I might have some fun with it at least. This is probably the only place where the detail of the sign is visible.. Down to the faux splatter (fitting each colour used, mind you), a background grille, as well as the aforementioned 3d sign, with some added bling, shine & sparkle. Of course with an added glossy arc (so web 2.0, I know), some drips, and to finish it all of, a scent of the original (ha-ha) structure of the brick to show the texture of the wall. And it all comes together in the film clip below:





Pimp my banana (behind the scenes)


(mind the HD option...)


And they all lived happily ever after, as in any good tale.