American Cinematographer - August 2018 - 24
SHORT TAKES
I
Magician's Apprentice
By Derek Stettler
"Blame the Author" is a song from inventive instrumental
artist L'Orange featuring vocals from Del the Funky Homosapien of
Gorillaz fame. The track's music video takes the form of a highly
imaginative short movie that combines live-action footage with stopmotion, as well as computer-generated and traditional cell animation. These techniques are used to tell the story of a lonely magician
(Harwood Gordon) who creates a tiny robot and imbues it with life
and magic so that it might escape the prison they find themselves in.
Pitched to record label Mello Music Group as "a loose steampunk
retelling of Pinocchio set in outer space," the production marked the
latest collaboration between director Alexander Thompson and cinematographer Harper Alexander, the latter of whom received the
2014 undergraduate ASC Linwood Dunn Heritage Award for one of
the duo's earlier team-ups - the sci-fi/fantasy short "Starlight."
Having initially bonded through similar interests and tastes,
the two filmmakers relished the challenge of working on a project
that combined so much of what drew them together in the first
place. "There's so much shorthand between us [that] all Alex needs
to do is tell me that we're going to do a science-fiction Pinocchio and
I know what he's going for," Alexander says. The two landed on an
aesthetic that "felt old-school and photochemical in a turn-of-thecentury kind of way, but imbued also with an opulent, varied color
palette to engender a rich fantasy atmosphere," Thompson notes.
The visual style and tone of the film was inspired by such stop-motion
legends as Ray Harryhausen and Jim Danforth, as well as acclaimed
science-fiction illustrator Chesley Bonestell.
According to Thompson, after the success of their first collaboration with Mello Music Group, "Strange Technology," the label
24
August 2018
"was extremely generous and trusting to allow significant creative
freedom in executing this follow-up collaboration, within the parameters of the budget." The music video's fantastical concept was
derived from the theme of the album, The Ordinary Man, which
centers on a disillusioned magician's downfall - together with the
filmmakers' desire to push themselves creatively and technically.
"We also wanted to do something that could utilize the talents of
several people that we had known for a number of years, but had
not yet worked with professionally," Thompson says.
"We called in a lot of favors," recalls Alexander of achieving
this ambitious multimedia project on a very limited budget. "Everyone that worked on this was doing so alongside bigger projects."
Working predominantly with collaborators they had originally met
while at school in North Carolina also helped a great deal. "The
blessing and curse of starting out making films in the Southeast was
that there weren't endless resources available to neophyte filmmakers," says Thompson, "and you learned quickly to be incredibly
creative and resourceful. We always wished we had more, but it
armed us well to pull off projects like this."
Fortunately, the production's otherworldly locations could be
captured close to home - Thompson's backyard, to be exact -
thanks to production designer Eliza Roberts. Roberts began
contributing from the very start, serving as the project's storyboard
artist, then extended to the creation and procurement of all the
props and set construction, down to the impromptu shot of a spider
in a jar. "She just saw that and caught it on set, knowing that it
would fit in with the story's theme of entrapment and freedom,"
recalls Alexander. Thompson is quick to praise Roberts: "Eliza is a
total miracle worker - just endlessly resourceful." With a storyline
that abandoned logic and realism in favor of a Georges Mélièsesque fantasy aesthetic, the production nevertheless aimed to keep
American Cinematographer
Photos by Harper Alexander, Alexander Thompson and Sam Schmiedeskamp. All images courtesy of the filmmakers.
A Geppettolike magician
imbues his
creation with
life in the
music video
for L'Orange's
"Blame the
Author."
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - August 2018
Contents
American Cinematographer - August 2018 - Cover1
American Cinematographer - August 2018 - Cover2
American Cinematographer - August 2018 - 1
American Cinematographer - August 2018 - 2
American Cinematographer - August 2018 - Contents
American Cinematographer - August 2018 - 4
American Cinematographer - August 2018 - 5
American Cinematographer - August 2018 - 6
American Cinematographer - August 2018 - 7
American Cinematographer - August 2018 - 8
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American Cinematographer - August 2018 - 21
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American Cinematographer - August 2018 - 23
American Cinematographer - August 2018 - 24
American Cinematographer - August 2018 - 24a
American Cinematographer - August 2018 - 24b
American Cinematographer - August 2018 - 25
American Cinematographer - August 2018 - 26
American Cinematographer - August 2018 - 27
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