AOP Members Personal Projects

My son has found his passion, he loves to draw! For me, this is a step change in his growing up into a man. I wanted to capture this new passion of his by making a short film of him that encapsulates what he puts into his art and I have used my passion for making imagery to do this. I did plenty of product placement along the way - as you do when that is what you're used too. I hope you enjoy this short, would love to hear what you think.

Products:@beatsbydre @strathmoreart @tombowusa @hm_man @pilotflyde @sonyalpha #beatsheadphones #strathmoretonedtan #tombowzoom #hmman #pilotflyh2 #sonya7rii

Director: Dominic James
Cinematography: Dominic James
Artist: Dylan James
Location: Littlehampton
Music Title: Couth Youth
Music Artist: Matt Wigton

KIT
Sony A7Rii
Sony 28mm f2
Pilotfly H2
Adobe Premiere CC
Soundstripe

At first glance, the viewer may believe he is seeing a solid sculpture in the landscape. In reality, the image captures a fabric form in ‘mid-flight’. The sculpture exists for a split second in time; once photographed, it is otherwise lost forever, never to be re-created.

I first produced this series in a studio environment. The permanence of this environment contrasted starkly against the transience of the moving forms. To create a greater sense of harmony, the images were later shot within the natural environment. In doing so, a secondary layer or optical illusion is incorporated for the viewer.

More images for this series can be viewed on my site. www.nealgrundy.co.uk

by Philip Chudy
London 020 337 11854
San Francisco +1 415 203 3030
www.philipchudy.com

Back in the days of chemical photography, this sort of a look occurred when things went wrong (old chemicals. bad paper etc). But the look was intriguing and in rare cases ‘happy accidents’ created highly memorable images.

Nowadays a mindless digital auto-filter is expected to deliver the same retro effects and everyone has this facility on their smart phone. But the truth is that really successful treatments are as rare as they ever were. No tonal treatment suits every image or is predictable enough to be optimal in the hands of a emotionless thoughtless algorithm. In advertising, being tasked to deliver a specific high quality graphic/illustration effect ‘on demand’ remains as ‘challenging’ a creative task as it ever was.

A lot of experimentation is required to find the best possible effect for the job. This is not least because - when there is featured product (a car in this case) - retaining its visual integrity is a major priority. Mood, atmosphere and sensual textures come a big second after making the vehicle look desirable even to the most conventional, creatively ambivalent buyer/driver. But even so that 'big second' still has to be 'pretty big' to do its job -  - to cut through the noise and at minimum 'be noticed' in our heavily image saturated media environment.

So, the brief was (as so often is the case) - 'be bold and cutting edge in creative terms for this Dodge Challenger image, but be careful not to challenge anyone's sensibility at the same time.