Caeser Kuriyama
Whilst I was researching directors who use still and moving images in film, I stumbled across a stop-animation music video by a director called Caeser Kuriyama. It features the use of over 45,000 photographs to make a music video for the band Fat City Reprise and is visually stunning.
http://www.cesarkuriyama.com/LongGone/LongGone.html
The video’s narrative, about a stuffed toy that comes to life is similar to an animation I made in my first year of university:
One of the main problems I had with moving my stuffed toy about was that when I needed him in positions that gravity wouldn’t allow for I was stuck. So I had to adjust the movements of my animation to suit what gravety allowed! However, Caeser used a technique whereby he attached blue sticks to his stuffed toy and moved him about whilst wearing all black. This could then be easily edited out for the final cut. This is a very simple yet effective technique and if I were to make another animation I would definatly adopt this method.
Another thing I like about Caeser’s video is the lighting. He uses bright, soft lighting to allude to the fact that the video is indeed a dream sequence. I found it added a surreal, blurred edge to the story and it has inspired me to be more attentive towards what lighting I use and what effect it will have on my overall piece.
Caeser is mainly a photographer, and when I looked at the photo’s from his photgraphy blog some of the photo’s reminded me of the photography of William Eggleston. Both have taken pictures of images of things that we wouldn’t usually look at as beautiful or interesting. Yet the way they have composed the image makes it interesting.
The water image in particular reminds me of a photograph I spontaniously took a few years ago of the lights of the City reflecting off the water of a fountain.
This, to me, shows something doesnt have to be spectacular to create a spectacle, looking at the mundane and obvious can create inspiration too.
