Resonance: Appear with a trace from Heerko Groefsema on Vimeo.

Resonance is the vision of SR Partners; a collaborative project with over 30 independent visual and audio designers / studios. The aim was to explore the relationship between geometry and audio in unique ways.

This is my entry for the project. It follows an abstract form’s life span. After it is being born, we can see it evolve into different states. It being influenced by external factors and repelling this. After which the final transition will take place.

For the audio I have collaborated with the talented Ben Lukas Boysen of Hecq.

The piece has been premiered at the OFFF 2011 festival in Barcelona and is also featured on Stash 81 as the Bonus Film. The film will also be played at Sonar, Pause Fest, Playground festival and Cutout fest.

The full project can now be seen here: vimeo.com/25186640

There are limited BluRay’s and DVD’s for the entire project at cargocollective.com/resonance#1198096/Get-the-film

Details for the complete project:

SEE || Displace Studios | Esteban Diacono | Heerko Groefsema | Jean-Paul Frenay | Jr.canest | KORB | Kultnation | Mate Steinforth | Matthias Müller | Momentary People | MRK | Murat Pak | Onur Senturk | Physalia studio | Polynoid | SR Partners | Thiago Maia | Tom Waterhouse | Tronic Studio | Spatial Harmonics Group

HEAR || Audionerve | Combustion | CypherAudio | David Kamp | Echolab | Hecq | Michael Fakesch | Mutant Jukebox | Radium Audio | Studio Takt | World Gang

OFFF Barcelona 2011 Main Titles from OFFF, let’s feed the future on Vimeo.

Still shocked and excited from last night, it’s an honor for us to show you this absolutely MINDBLOWING TITLES made for OFFF by PostPanic.

Thank you so much to PostPanic, and specially to Mischa Rozema, Ania Markham and Si Scott, simply epic!!!

Written by Mischa Rozema and British graphic designer, Si Scott, the opening titles reflect their dark thoughts on a possible future. Directed by Mischa and shot on location in Prague, the film guides the viewer through a grim scenario embedded with the names of artists appearing at this year’s OFFF festival. The live action was brought back to Amsterdam for post, primarily carried out by PostPanic’s in-house team of artists but also with the additional help of freelancers and partner companies that we have enjoyed strong creative relationships with over the years. It’s really fair to say that this was a labour of love by a passionate crew of people.

Says Ania Markham, Executive Producer at PostPanic:
“The images created by the crew of people working on the titles has been unbelievable, with nationalities represented including Dutch, Czech, English, American, Polish, German, Swedish and Belgian. It’s been a great opportunity for all of us to work together on a non-commercial project we’re passionate about and we’re so proud of the combined effort and final result.”

DIRECTORS NOTES (Mischa Rozema)

This project started out as a collaboration between myself and Si Scott. Right from the start, we decided that it should be the darkest thing we could make. I think it just felt natural to the both of us; if we had to nail the future, it would not be a nice place.

This idea evolved into a clash of times. Inspired by an idea from the late Arthur C. Clarke. He wrote about different historical civilizations meeting in a single point in time. So what happens when civilizations meet? The ‘weaker’ one gets eaten by the ‘stronger’. You only have to look at history to see the destructive power of civilizations.

So the main underlying idea is: what would happen if the future lands on our doorstep today? Let’s take mankind, add perhaps 100 years and then let them show up on our doorstep today. The future would pretty much devour the present. Probably in a matter of, let’s say, 7 days… So that’s what we’re looking at. But every ending also means a new beginning, hence Year Zero.

There’s all kinds of hidden messages in there. Like the virus eating away at reality, buildings and people, even at the viewers brain. It’s behaving off course much like a computer virus. And the network of wires represents the future of social networking. I just made it physical and let it ‘catch’ the city and it’s people like a net. All these ideas just serve as inspiration for us to create a future that worked for this concept. They’re not meant to be deciphered by the audience. It’s still meant to be just a title sequence and not an actual movie.

Now what makes a good title sequence? Personally, I think it’s something that gets you in the mood, warms you up for what you’re about to experience, be it a film, tv series or in our case, the OFFF festival. We decided to treat the OFFF festival as a feature film experience. So all we had to do was get the viewer into the right state of mind. Without, of course, being too narrative led. The best title sequences out there are nothing but a random collection of images/scenes that don’t tell a lot if you watch them on their own. But edit them together and a new context is created. A context that matters, a feeling that gets the viewer ready for the main event, in our case, the festival.

To get started, the next thing we did was make a collection of ideas that would scare me and Si. So, anything drawn from our youth, right through to stuff that’s inspired us over the years as well as seemingly random compositions that trigger the imagination of the viewer. For example, when we show you the aesthetics of a car explosion, it’s carefully constructed. Why a car and not something else? Because an exploding car brings extra content to an otherwise simple aesthetic display of violence. A car doesn’t explode by itself so instantly the brain tries to formulate the background behind it. It adds an either political or criminal edge to the violence. To me it felt appropriate because of the sense of protest and rebellion the shot has. And maybe the biggest question; was there someone in the car and if so, who was it? For me, every idea should provoke these kind of questions; from a girl in a prom dress holding a rocket launcher to a riot cop standing in the kitchen. All scenes have a pre and post story to them. In no time you’re actually trying to connect these seemingly random scenes and boom; you’ve just created your own strange context. You now have a feeling, a taste and lots of questions probably. Questions that normally would be answered by watching the actual movie. But since there’s no actual movie here we’ll leave stranded with, hopefully, an uncomfortable feeling and lots of questions - some might feel unsatisfied and wondering why. Just like a nightmare.

We also wanted the actual titles to be different this time. Most of the time festival titles are driven by the idea on how to show titles. A mechanism that displays titles in a creative way. We actually thought to bring the festival theme to the foreground and have the titles play a part in it. Incorporate them so they become the actual fiber/texture of the piece itself. Practically I still think it’s nice that the viewer has to actively look for the names and not get too comfortable. Even if it means to see it a couple of times which surely is the best we can aim for as a free project ; )

How about the shoot? Well, prior to Prague we created more than 50 ideas I could play with. This was always the intention. Go out shooting with a tiny crew, acting like we’re still in art school and be open for anything that might happen. That’s why we shot everything on 2 Canon 5D’s (that and having no budget off course). This was a really nice change for me. Normally I prepare commercial shoots to the very last detail and there’s a lot more people involved. Savage helped us out big time in Prague. We also had some bad news. Due to his back problems Si Scott had to abandon the project and couldn’t join the shoot.

When we came back from Prague I started editing straight away and soon came to the conclusion we had about 60 vfx shots to work on and no budget and increasingly less time. Remember that this project was a side dish for PostPanic, we had to work on commissioned jobs also. But everybody involved soon fell in love with the project, including STORM Postproduction who are our neighbors (luckily for us).

In the mean time we received the title list. It had about 70 names on it! That’s when I found out that the dynamics I wanted to use would probably not work. Just too many names that would make the piece too long to just show random images. So in the plane towards Prague I thought of bringing in a tiny bit of narrative. Which turned out to be the beginning of the sequence (1st act). I wrote in a lead character that would relate to the viewer.

The idea was to trick the audience into thinking they’re watching some kind of documentary. We basically follow a guy going home. Bit by bit his environment gets stranger and more uncomfortable to watch. Is he living in a war zone? Slowly the background takes over and the piece changes into an urban nightmare. And like a nightmare, the story/edit doesn’t always make sense but makes you feel really uncomfortable. I also wanted the viewer to experience the nightmare. That’s where the dark matter comes in. Dark matter is what I call the macro shot bits. Flashes that derail your train of thought like there’s something eating away at your brain as you try to make sense of the nightmare. I wanted the viewer to go nuts, alongside with the cast. Erase the line between nightmare and reality. The end result is something you won’t come across easily on your tv. And is also just another fun way to do titles.

The sound design and music made by Hecq added a lot to the feel and scale of the film. It clearly divides the 3 acts (1st act: up to execution, 2nd from execution, 3rd final shot) and makes completely different ideas and scenes feel coherent. It also emphasizes the dynamics of the film and brings the much needed pace at the end. It’s been great working with Ben. We’ve been surfing the same wave length throughout the project.

Finally I want to thank everyone involved for making these titles possible. For creating something out of nothing. For showing so much love for something as dark as this.

CREDITS


Directed by Mischa Rozema
Story by Mischa Rozema & Si Scott
Production Company: PostPanic
Executive Producers: Jules Tervoort, Ania Markham
DoP: Jiri Malek, Mischa Rozema
Music & Sound Design: Hecq
Senior Producer: Annejes van Liempd
Production Assistant: Jacinta Ramaker
Production Designer: Roland Mylanus
Editor: Mischa Rozema

Prague Cast:
Main Hero: Vladan Bláha
Grafitti Guy: Tom Malar
Main Hero Sister: Katerina Galova

Post-Production: PostPanic
CG Supervisor: Ivor Goldberg
VFX Supervisor: Chris Staves
3D Artists: Jeroen Aerts, Matthijs Joor, Jurriën Boogert, Marnix Reckman, Adam Janeczek
2D Artist: Erwin van den IJssel
3D Interns: Cara To, Xander Clerckx
2D Interns: Mathijs Luijten, Per Westholm
Compositing: Chris Staves, Ivor Goldberg, Adam Janeczek, Matthijs Joor
Graphic Designs: Si Scott
Additional Graffiti Elements: Florian Stumpe
Matte Painting: Wieger Poutsma
Additional 3D and Compositing: Storm PostProduction

Production (Prague) by Savage:
Executive Producer: Klara Kralickova, Pavla Burgetova Callegari
Producer: Michaela Berkova
Production Assistant: Vojta Ruzicka
Prop master: Jan Fiala
Location Scout & Management: Petr Bastar, Adam Fuchs
Location: CREVISTON, a.s.
Tattoos made by: Wowa tattoo prague

Prie Dieu from Cokau on Vimeo.

Winner at the Vimeo Festival + Awards 2012, experimental category.
vimeo.com/awards/winners/experimental

“Prie Dieu” (Pray to God in french) is one of the designation in France for the praying mantis.
Welcome in a world where insects are connected to a divine power by threads until they decide to commit the sin and break this link.

No insects were hurt during the shooting, all the threads were done during post-production.

cokau.com

Watch “Prie Dieu : behind the scenes” here : vimeo.com/cokau/prie-dieu-behind-the-scenes

shot on
Canon EOS 550d, lens : Zeiss Makro-Planar 100mm f/2 ZF
Canon EOS 60d, lens : Canon MP E 65 mm f/2.8
Lumix GH1, lens : Voigtlander Micro 4/3 Nokton 25mm f/0.95 

music
Amon Tobin - Surge (16 bit remix)
Written by Amon Tobin
Published by Just Isn’t Music
(P) Ninja Tune 2011
Licensed courtesy of Ninja Tune

Gregorio Allegri - Miserere

sound design
Several tracks from Isam album by Amon Tobin.

thanks
Gaétan Di Muccio for his help on the shooting.

Directed by Cokau · Achille Coquerel and Thomas Kauffmann

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