Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Prospect.1 #1

The New York Times has a big story about Prospect.1 in New Orleans.

We're working with Gail Levin to make little documentaries profiling several of the artists involved.

These bits bring up several interesting editorial issues. Cutting a piece is distilling and structuring what something is "about". For this project a few questions are already there, given the specific nature of this biennial: What is the art's relationship to the city of New Orleans? What is the process of creation (especially charged given the city's recent destruction)? Who is the artist, what makes them interesting?

Those questions swirl before a single frame is shot -then they tell you something else on top of that.

Here are a few rough clips.




The above is different from anything I've cut before. The voice track is completely divorced from the picture until the final shot. There are a few moments where we "fake it" to make it seem like he's synched.





This one was my best editing ever. Janine Antoni was so charming, the set up so much fun and Ben Shapiro's camera work so intimate and friendly that the only thing to do was pull one take.

Oh, and animators -especially CG and motion capture types -listen closely to what she says about her experience filming her eyeball, there's profound insight in there.

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