Ffresh Festival
Ffresh festival: The student moving image festival of wales was hosted by Glyndwr University February 2013.
Dream: Was the first hour session I attended consisting of 5 very different short films and animations, all of which were executed in very different ways. However the first film shown was called momentum by Borris seewald was of most interest to me. A short description of the film causes great curiosity.
“For some it is just an ordinary party snack, but for Patrick, a tortilla chip started a moment of self-discovery. With exuberant dancing and magical passion he shares his inspiration and invites everyone to participate. Even his mother” (ffresh.com)
A male actor is situated in what can be described as a derelict building with rough un plastered textured walls and the floor covered in an array of scattered orange and brown leaves. A set by which might sound dull and uninspiring but the simplicity of the environment allowed for the connection between the visual dynamics and the audio to stand strong. The use of lighting in the piece upon the surroundings and the character when stood speaking to the camera was pretty much perfect, creating a natural warming effect.
The act of dancing is described by the example of picking up a tortilla chip at a party and simply dancing with it in your hand. The narrative is spoken over the amazing powerful soundtrack, It is the soundtrack that makes the piece so exciting. The deep loud beat provides the energy needed to tell the story. As stated in the piece “Any good relationship creates energy” Demonstrated by inviting you to feel the energy with him and showing that even his mother can create this feeling. The story was clear and coherent which allowing you to make your own connection with the piece.
Momentum trailer
The second short film in which interested me was one titled “ You got beautiful” which attempts to show the relationship that any women regardless of age, size or confidence can have with their own body. The film was made from simple stock motion creating female bodies and features out of a range of female attributes from the exterior of the body. The piece was thought provoking asking questions such as “what is beauty” questioning why we as women go through life caring so dearly about looks and weight loss. Do we have any other choice but to care when the ideal women in the media surround us?? This was a piece in which every female could relate.
Sources
Tomato Mastercalss with Dylan Kendle
Tomato is a studio based in London that contains a collective of artists working upon a range of disciplines and has no artistic hierarchy such as junior designer or director. All members work on the same level, they describe this as “WE / ME / US” The studio itself does not run at a profit and members actually pay a monthly fee to be a part of this unique collective. However some may beg to differ that a studio could not run appropriately with such an employment model. It is an art hierarchy that sets the boundaries that are sometimes needed. I feel a junior designer would learn more from others with great experience than being put straight into the process to run freely, where would you start?? This made me question my own work ethic in that I often require direction and guidance to get the best results.
Tomato utilises there skills and energy on exploring a range of techniques to discover creative possibilities and bespoke work, creating design by collaboration of all types of art and media. A point was stressed that everyone in the studio “has to make things everyday regardless if they have no clients, this is what keeps us inspired” He spoke of making things with you hands essentially experimenting from scratch and nature as it is here inspiration is found. Good design comes from experimentation. There was a day when computers were found in offices not design studios and yet great works were produced. I love the thought of stripping the process of design back to basics as I find myself doing this quite regularly in my own work in order for me to think of a good direction to take certain projects in.
A few of Dylans works I appreciated the most.
This was based on the typeface Futura who worked on the idea of deconstruction of the typeface and bringing it all back together in form of an animation
These are a range of typography works using poetic structures such as haiku to play with the typefaces. The handmade layouts inspired me greatly proving that great typographic layout can be created with the human eye, experimenting with weights and size.
A commercial made for BBC radio 4 created by the splitting of ink and liquid. After hours of experimentation they discovered that using wicks in the center of the ink created the best splitting affect. This shows why play is so important within the studio allowing the forms to conduct themselves. I especially like the use of the camera shot panning slowly across the works.
Kendle’s inspirational pointers:
- Don’t do it for the money.
- Do it like you mean it.
- Do it regardless.
- Most importantly KEEP PLAYING!!!
He also stated that he believes that you should have one idea and do it really well as he does not believe in complications. This idea was interesting to me as I struggle to stick to one idea, I like to experiment but my skills would be better valued experimenting with one idea not all of them.
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