American Cinematographer - September 2007 - (Page 72)

Short Takes Wilson’s Celebrity Portraits on Voom HD Networks by Elina Shatkin Actor Peter Stormare posed for one of Robert Wilson’s more disturbing hi-def video portaits, which were recently exhibited at galleries in Los Angeles and New York. ridging the gap between traditional portraiture and digital media, Robert Wilson’s Voom Portraits comprises 36 high-definition (HD) video portraits of actors, athletes, monarchs and artists that are designed to play out on 65" or 103" Panasonic plasma screens. In a gallery setting, the portraits screen on loops that last from 30 seconds to 30 minutes. Because the loops are imperceptible, the portraits look remarkably like still images until the viewer notices a glimmer of movement. Wilson, a renowned theater director and multimedia artist, was approached in 2004 by Ali Hosseini, an executive producer at Voom HD Networks (owned by Cablevision Systems subsidiary Rainbow Media). A fan of Wilson’s work for two decades, Hosseini wanted to develop a project that would showcase HD in all its million-pixel glory. “I was excited about the possibility of working with Robert,” B says Hosseini. “He’s a visual innovator who’s well known for his use of lighting and color in a wide variety of media. I knew he’d come up with something unique that would push the limits of what HD can do.” Wilson and Hosseini considered several options — a vast projected backdrop for a Bach opera was nixed as too esoteric — until they hit on the idea of video portraits. “I have been interested in video as a medium for a long time,” says Wilson, who created video portraits of French filmmaker Patrice Chereau and Sony executive Akito Morita in the 1980s. “But the video technology available [in the 1980s] limited what I could do with lighting and setting up the image. It was only when Noah Khoshbin, who has worked with me for years, showed me what can be done in HD that I decided to create a larger group of works in this medium.” Although many of the works refer to iconic paintings and images, the connections between the photos themselves are purely formal. Because each portrait is relatively short, Wilson could conceive and realize dozens of scenarios, from nearly monochrome black-andwhite portraits to some with shockingly vivid pop colors. “The relationship between the subject and the imagery is different from portrait to portrait,” he says. “They are inspired by the subject and my reactions to and associations with them. All the portraits can stand for themselves.” Wilson says he often has one or more specific images in mind when he conceives a portrait. The portrait of Mikhail Baryshnikov as a wounded St. Sebastian was inspired by the Andrea Mantegna painting, and the portrait of Robert Downey Jr. lying on an operating table with his muscles and sinews exposed was inspired by Rembrandt’s The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes 72 September 2007 Photos courtesy of Voom HD Networks.

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - September 2007

Contents Editor’s Note Global Village DVD Playback Production Slate Bourne Again Cultural Immersion Baroque Visions Once Upon a Time in Bucharest Short Takes Post Focus Filmmakers’ Forum New Products & Services Points East International Marketplace Classified Ads Ad Index ASC Membership Roster Clubhouse News Wrap Shot

American Cinematographer - September 2007

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