The Making of an Urban Geode
Over the past month, Gregory Tuzin has been shooting bits and pieces of me working on the giant geode installation at The Standard, Hollywood. I’m excited to show the finished results here!
It’s actually quite impressive what he’s done in between his own work and relaxing—shooting with his iphone while I folded pieces at a bar for example. So stealth! Hope you enjoy the video and are able to make it this Thursday for the reception.
A COMMON NAME BOX INSTALLATION urban geode project
dj + drinks + artist reception start at 7pm (with dj jeffrey paradise)
thursday, june 14th
the standard, hollywood
8300 sunset boulevard, west hollywood
RSVP to hello@raconteur.la
For more Standard events check out standardculture.com. Oh, and the track on the video is an amazing Remix of Architecture in Helsinki’s Escapee by SVRA. Check it out: soundcloud.com/svra/escapee.. and here’s the original, love it: vimeo.com/24269098
via tuzin.com/blog
Micro Geode Projection
This past week Greg and I had three friends (Carmen, Jake, and Dustin) visiting from San Francisco and it was a whirlwind of collaboration, creation, and brainstorms.
My friend Carmen and I had one specific project we’ve been talking about—to create a micro projection on a geode. Image mapping is rapidly becoming something more artists are exploring for visuals and installations, but it’s generally done very large. Large would be amazing on these geodes, but we wanted to see how small we can go, a personal and unique challenge.
We designed an image mapping over the shape of a 2″ x 2″ geode I created so that we could isolate each of the “crystal” shapes and make them glow. The result was actually quite fun! It looks like the individual crystals are sometimes glowing and pulsing.
We haven’t perfected it yet, but I wanted to post some of our results and process. We chose the video below to show the scale of the actual piece (starring my cat Stampy), and the images are various projections and angles of the piece. We’re thinking of eventually making this an installation piece, but aren’t sure of where or what exactly. Stay tuned for more thoughts and details as this project progresses!
Mini 2"x2" Paper Geode
Micro Geode Projection
Micro Geode Projection
Micro Geode Projection
PVC Grid, Stop Motion Setup
Stop Motion Grid, Full Set Up
PVC Pipe Grid
Bishop/Tuzin Logo Closeup
Full Shot of Cloud Set Up
Things are finally starting to happen! I’ve been bribing Greg with dinner at Pizzeria Mozza and massages in order to get him excited to make me things. He would have done these things anyway, but I like to give some extra energy into the project.
This week, after much trial and error, Greg has dreamed up and created a PVC pipe grid. The grid will be used for two projects, the first one I’ve already started setting up. The above pictures show first, the full set up. The second photo is an image of the grid, it’s a little warped because it’s not that strong (we’re not rich enough to buy steel or anything). Third, is the finished logo I created for Bishop/Tuzin out of paper already nestled in the clouds.
The last image is a straight on shot of the logo in the clouds. I made quite a few clouds from my first batch of pillow stuffing but I had to get more to fill in the background today. So far, so good. The really tricky part will be the camera set up and move…poor Greg needs to create a rolling camera rig so that we can zoom into the clouds and move up. Stay tuned!
Side note: sorry for the blurry images.
Partly Foggy
Partly Foggy
Continuing my setup for the stop motion video mentioned in my last post, my studio has gathered a low hanging fog…
Stop Motion Prep
Bishop/Tuzin Cloud Test
I’m preparing for a short stop motion film for my friends’ website. They are starting a new brand for screen writing and filmmaking together and we need some imagery. The idea is to create several short videos that are classically cinematic and then use them super-sized, running in the background of their content. One image they’ve created is the well-used flying through stormy clouds, lightning flashing, and coming across the logo floating in the air. I decided to “Michel Gondry” the idea by creating a stop motion video of the idea. I started with the paper letters that I’ve already created and am now creating and test shooting the clouds (seen above). The clouds will keep me busy for a while, then on to the foil lightning bolts.
Perfectly Blurry Stop Motion Test
A COMMON NAME, Stop Motion Test from Julian Paige Smith on Vimeo.
My very first foray into stop motion. Yes I know it’s blurry, yes I know it’s fast, but yes I do think it’s fun. I got the concept down, now onto the equipment…
Mary and Max, Strange Pals
Mary and Max
Last night I watched a dark claymation film called Mary and Max. It’s a story of two unlikely friends, an obese, middle-aged New Yorker and a young outcast from Australia, Mary. I had never heard of it before, but I can’t resist anything claymation and I noticed the voice actors were the likes of Philip Seymour Hoffman, Toni Collette, and Eric Bana. Also, it won a ton of awards when it hit the festival circuit a few years ago.
The imagery was super fun and dark and I kept getting little surprises from the scenes. I love the fish smoking underwater, the bubble bath design, and all the small details throughout. Beware of death by embalming fluid, hard psychiatric emotions, disgusting-looking characters, and ground up goldfish.
Watch it now on Netflix. Also, definitely check out their website if you’re into that kind of stuff.
Dog Day Fundraiser Partners
DOG DAY FUNDRAISER
This Tuesday, Wurstkuche downtown will be hosting a fundraiser for their friends Kevin Pecota and Dominic Devore. The two have written a script called Dog Day and need to raise the funds to make it. If you are looking for something to do, something to support, or some delicious beer and sausage, come to Wurstkuche on Tuesday, March 15. Ten percent of the proceeds will go to the film and if they make over what was expected for a Tuesday evening, they’ll make fifteen percent!
The image above was created by myself and Gregory Tuzin for the fundraising activities.
Hope to see you there!
Poster Bookcases
The Story of Emily in the Afterlife, Book Design
Jeez! Months and months ago I started this project; and each step has taken forever and/or I’ve procrastinated starting. I’m on the final step of building this piece—the books. I created the bookshelves about three months ago, the text about four months ago, the trees five months ago, and so on…
The Story of Emily in the Afterlife is a script that my friends Gregory Tuzin and Brent Bishop (now Bishop/Tuzin) have written. I’m designing perhaps an over-the-top design for their poster to help advertise the package. The final set-up will be 4′ x 6′ large, something Gregory will be setting up and lighting for ultimate effect. I’m still not going to share the sketch of the whole piece, so here is the latest small piece I’ve finally started to tackle.
The bookshelves above are made of foam core and the books are pieces of wood (usually used by architecture students) lined up and painted. These shelves will not be photographed this close up or with so much light, so the end product will appear to have more depth and show less flaws.
WITHOUT, A Short Film for Purchase
WITHOUT, Short Film Imagery
WITHOUT, Movie Titles Close Up
The holidays have slowed up my posts and my projects, everyone is on vacation or working half-time right now. Luckily, we received some great news today! A short indie film I worked on a couple years ago is now available on iTunes. The film is called Without and was written and directed by Gregory F. Tuzin and Brent Bishop. These two collaborators were excellent clients—they usually tell me their concept and then say, “Go for it!”. They give me free reign on design and let me explore as much as I want.
For Without, I worked with water colorist Beverly Tuzin to create the promotional poster. We selected a few screen shots and asked Beverly to water color the characters and background. The idea was to recreate the scene to really show the dry, arid, and sparse landscape the characters inhabited. After Beverly delivered, I incorporated a logo that I created using india ink and a cut out potato. I also used typefaces that I had printed out, redrawn, and scanned to create brand new typefaces that were now extremely distressed.
You can view the poster on the top left of the above images. The rest of the images are screen shots from the film and title sequence. The inked logo and the newly distressed fonts also appear in the horizontally moving title sequence of the film.
Support our artistic endeavors and purchase the film on iTunes! We are so excited to have the film at a convenient place to purchase and to share, so please direct your friends and family to the film as well.
Sketch Motion Picture
Rudolph Sketch Process
A long while ago I started a large drawing in a sketch book, and I decided to document the process. I started documenting a little late, so I had to fake it with some photoshopping a few shots. I promised myself the sketch would fill the page and I definitely had a few hitches in the road where I had no idea where or how to continue. A few times I started a section using some inspiration I had found and I think those are the parts that do not fit the rest of the drawing as much. I’m glad I abandoned those thoughts but made sure to keep them on the page.
For me, this isn’t supposed to be a perfect drawing, it’s supposed to be an accomplishment of actually finishing. I’m very hard on myself and I tend to not even start projects, so this is part of a personal process to start and complete ideas, whether I like them or not or if I think they failed.
Perusing Napa Valley
Old Film Gel
Magic Lantern Ad
Magic Lanterns and Stereopticons Ad
Stereopticons and Magic Lanterns Ad
Metal "Puppet"
I just spent a short weekend in Napa Valley. While there, I went tasting at the Francis Ford Coppola Winery (now renamed to Rubicon Estates), one of my favorites. At the winery, there was a fantastic display of old machines, devices, and ads for animated movies. The first ever moving picture machine was called the “wheel of life” or the “zoopraxiscope“. This is where you would look through a slit in a wheel and watch a series of photos move quickly by to create that famous running horse. There were several of these wheels on display along with larger machines in which one person could view at a time. In one of these machines, the pictures flipped towards you and there was a slightly risque movie of a woman with a large feather. Gotta love old “porn”.
The images above are some of the images and ads on display at the winery. I’m so in love with the typography on the “magic lantern” ads—the layout, the multiple type faces, the accompanying illustrations—beautiful. The colored gel was a great specimen, as well as the metal figure I’m calling a “puppet”. It looks like it belongs in an old kids’ theater. Pardon the cheap iphone shots, I do think the cheap camera worked well with the gel.
Nathalie Djurberg, Pushing Boundaries
Nathalie Djurberg Images
I was reading a Times Fashion magazine and came across this incredible artist, Nathalie Djurberg. I hesitated adding her to my collection of inspiration because she’s a little out of the realm of what I’m working on—but she does relate as far as stop motion, which yes, I do plan on working with on my paper art.
Her twisted art is disturbing yet somehow still attractive. The characters are crudely made but really work with her usual subject matter, which are often chilling. Some videos touch subjects of rape, mutilation, death, destruction—all things that she feels she must create but cannot talk about. Watching the videos, I can’t help but feel she has some demons, yet the worlds she creates are incredibly cinematic and have beautiful production value. Something I hope to achieve along the way.
Paper Art – Enter the Void
Cut Paper Typography Design
This was a quick, fun project for a typography challenge. I wanted to enter a few designs and came up with this idea to do another cut paper like my “p’uh” logo at the top of the page. Having already done a similar design, I was able to hone the idea a little more and take it a bit further.
“Enter the Void” seemed like a fitting phrase to use for a design that would have a deep dimension. I ended up using a font that had little amount of curves so that I could cut more pieces by hand easily. I used 13 sheets up paper total, only repeating three of the colors. Also, the “o” and the “d” have quite a few more layers because of the largeness and overall roundness of the letters. The colors also remind me of the current electric-looking design of the new Gaspar Noé film coming out, also Enter The Void.
After completing this small project, the next idea is to up the scale quite a bit. Think very large scale paper with 3–4 times more paper layers.
Arcade Fire’s Presents to You
The Wilderness Downtown, Home Page
The Wilderness Downtown, Initial Screen Shot
The Wilderness Downtown, Broken Screen Shot
The Wilderness Downtown, Final Broken Screen Shots
Arcade Fire has been making a scene lately. Their new album, “The Suburbs”, is jam-packed with prizes—5 album covers, a plethora of posters, 12″ vinyl, CD, and digital files. Not only that, Chris Milk has created an amazing film to a new track “We Used to Wait”. Created in HTML5, this browser experiment asks you for your home address and calculates a custom video using google earth. The images above are some screen shots of my screen. It takes you from a single shot of a person running to many broken up frames of your home, birds flying, and the person seemingly running through your neighborhood. It’s kind of inspirational, especially if you used to take runs down your old streets.
Try it out here.
Punga
MTV VMA’S LATINAMERICAN AWARDS 2008
Punga is an animation and branding studio based in Buenos Aires. They come up with fun animations for the likes of MTV, Coca Cola, Nick Jr., and Chemical Brothers. Some of the work they do for Europe and S. America is so creative and out there, it makes we wish I didn’t live in states.
Paper Forest—Work in Progress
Paper Forest Designs
Here’s a quick photo of a work-in-progress. I’m creating a paper forest for a very large diorama. The end diorama will be 4′ x 6′, the largest scale project I’ve worked on (so far).
The whole project is quite a large undertaking and the forest has logged quite a few hours itself. I’m a perfectionist and it’s hard not to cut all of the trees perfectly. They do not need to be, so I’m working on trying to get a little imperfect and filling in the gaps quickly with black marker afterwards. I’ve been experimenting with the right thickness of paper. It started with foam core (ridiculous idea!) and ended with two sheets of text weight paper Super 66′d together.
Next up, how to rig these things up?
