Too funny

This is too fuckin' funny to even describe. Great tune though. :)

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Joy of going manual

Recently, I bought a camera. It wasn't an impulse buy. Working with photographers for so long, i managed to grasp the mechanics behind a shoot, where the lighting goes, the composition. But then being an Art Director, one can only direct according to his perspective, i figured it'll be best if I can get a clearer picture on how it looks behind the lens, to understand the shoots better given from a photographers perspective.

I started doing my research on cameras best fit for my use. Lomo really interest me, but the thought of shelving out rm1000 for a gimmicky-undurable camera with plastic lens (the newer Lomo LCA+) doesn't bode well with me. I really loved the whole idea of shooting by the waist, point and click mantra every Lomo enthusiast abide fiercely to, to get an arty-farty image with deep saturation and contrast ala' Wong Kar Wai style. First of all, I did fiddle with the Diana mid-format camera, developed the films and found nothing turns out right. Everyone can argue that its the whole culture of Lomography, to embrace mistakes like its art and to not worry bout how it will turn out. Out of 12 shots only 3 came out right. The rest are all under-expose and extremely dim, even in broad daylight. Its a marketing gimmick actually, this whole Lomo thing. Its a remake of classic cameras, repackaged with all the glitter and hype to appeal to all artist-wannabes type.

I don't have anything against Lomo fanboys, as I really loved the effect it produces, the vignetting (dark corners on your image) and the colors its produces. Thats the whole reason I venture into photography, to get the Lomo effect. But I am a control freak when it comes to images. I need to be cocksure that my image is gonna turn out how I imagined it without all the faulty focusing and under-exposures.

So I went and purchase an FM2 Nikon. Its super old, its uses film, it looks damn cool. Also Its also a legendary camera as some may claimed with super sharp lens.  I didn't know all that before I purchase it. Well, its off to kick some photography ass then? To learn photography with an old camera is time consuming, modern techniques apply to all DSLR cameras. So its back to the internet with SLR (Single Lens Reflex) research then. I'm desperately trying to experiment and achieve the Lomo effect with different films and slides. Why not just use photoshop?

Certain things are better without Photoshop. Period.

To hold and operate on a film camera is to experience photography from the days of yore. I really like the idea of manually loading the film in and operating the shutter speeds and advancing the film through a lever. Everything just felt real instead of a point and click method which requires zero skill. Handling a manual camera lets you appreciate the finer points of photography to carefully select your subject and to exercise your composition because you can't just delete the damn image if you don't like it. 

I believe to be able to run, one needs to walk first. And thats why I'm taking the first steps to photography with a film camera.

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Sour

Awesome music video from Japanese trio, Sour. Very mellow with soft guitar riffs. Perfect for those designer types. For their info, check out their blog.

Taken from JapanSugoi

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Tokyo 01

I've been to Tokyo twice, once alone and the second time with friends. I don't know why I love the damn city so much, but I guess its the atmosphere, the culture and the people. The city exudes life, especially for creative people like us, are often bask in the flow of creativity offered by the city's vibrant lights and interesting architecture.

I really like the way they juxtaposed old buildings or stores with ultra-modern malls side by side. It is not surprising to find a quaint, traditional japanese restaurant situated beside a new, contemporary structured hi-rise building. Even with the housing area, no house is alike. The Japanese pride themselves in individuality, and you can find rows and rows of house in different design, scale and architecture. Let's say in Shibuya, everywhere you go, you are constantly assaulted with the lights, the sights and the sound while walking along the streets. Hummers installed with huge-ass speakers blasting rap music, park at the sidewalk as part of the artist new album promotion. Each different building/stores emits different bright neon lights, all fighting for your attention to stand out from the rest. Asians who dress well, invading your personal space, walking in droves towards you, along with you. Its just too much to absorb if you are there the first time. There's so many interesting stuff happening all at the same time its overwhelming to even converse normally with your friends without being sidetrack by the awesomeness of it all. I believe there's a murky side to Tokyo as well which I haven't ventured before but I like how everything beautiful and perfect is projected on the surface. I'm superficial like that. If you happen to have wads of cash with nothing to buy, I highly recommend Tokyo as your stop for an exhilarating experience.

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Fashion Victims

(Excerpt from spread)

January 14 20xx

I had reached an impasse for my art. There was nothing new under the sun for my photographic eye for life had revealed its baseness to me and I was unimpressed. Until last night. Last night, the sky was a starlit canvas and I rediscovered vigour for my craft. A man I recognise. He is a kindred artist. He committed a heinous act that made me retch but upon reflection I saw only exquisite work. He ended her in a stairwell where I lived. I captured his art through my art. I cannot express how I feel but through my lens. I feel renewed.

Concept & Art Direction SARU
Words David Chin
Photography FAI/IFL STUDIO
Digital Imaging Norman Tang/IFL STUDIO
Styling Daniel Henry
Hair Scott Ong/Homme Salon
Make-Up Ellisan Tan
Models Marina V, Paulo O/Andrews Models .

This shoot is done within a day. Normally, fashion spreads only lasted for roughly 4-5 hours including makeup. But for this spread, alot of props were used. AWAS cones, warning tapes, knifes and so on. It took us 8 hours to finish the damn shoot as it was raining already and we weren't able to continue the shoot outdoors, so everything had to be done indoors. The rest was photoshopped. We had every reason to fail as most of the shots needed to be done outdoors. Even I need to be in the shoot as well as we only booked 2 models for the shoot.

(Excerpt from spread)

May 3 20xx

I had obsessed over my masterpiece for months and I was insatiable. I needed more. This recognisable man had ignited more than just passion for my work, he sparked a dark desire I could not suppress. I met him again and I followed him. And Joy! He did it again! He cradled her into his car and brought her to her final resting place. He squeezed her tightly, delicately, and she was no more. I cannot congratulate him enough, but he does not know I follow him. I captured the act from afar without his knowledge and yet I ache to reveal myself to him. To thank him for his work that informs my work. Perhaps I will get a gallery exhibition with this series.

I wanted to create an interesting fashion spread with a storyline. Its always me coming up with a concept thats so damn fuckin difficult to pull off, which gives us a huge loophole to ruin the whole damn shoot. I had the storyline nailed down since several months ago, under the influence of too much damn Dexter drama-bingeing. Major assistance came from David Chin for the text, as I had him writing à la Edgar Allan Poe style. Dark and poetry-like. Fucker's a master with words. Like butter in my fuckin' mouth yo'.

(Excerpt from spread)

July 12 20xx

It seems I am not the only one who stalks my recognisable man. There is a detective. A capable one who is close to this man now. So close my recognisable man should feel his breath on his neck. I discovered this detective on the third instalment of my admired artist’s masterpiece. A man this time. Foolish enough to be so cavalier as to traverse in darkness unescorted. My recognisable man quickly escorted our fool to the world to come. This time my camera was without film and when I returned to immortalise his work, I found the detective. This time, I risked everything to take my photograph and I succeeded in this. I wish my recognisable man luck.

We were discussing with the editorial team on how we would structure the whole storyline since we had so many restrictions with the KDN (Malaysian Publishing of Ministry of Home Affairs and Internal Security, check here for the restrictions, one would almost give up on starting a magazine), initially we went for the story where the killer manages to escape. but after several discussions, we played it safe and decided to structure it with the killer writing his journal in prison. Not the best decision but a safe one.

(Excerpt from spread)

August 30 20xx

He was caught! I was devastated as I watched my recognisable man led away by the police to a waiting cell and in time, a waiting noose. I could not bear the end of his and my work. Night after sleepless night, I could not imagine this masterpiece of mine incomplete. But I finally finished it. The urge bubbled within me, so I stalked a young couple to a nearby park. And with two swift unsuspecting blows, they passed on. My work was complete. Then they came for me that night. I am not as skilled as my recognisable man at deeds such as this. My doctor tells me that I am unwell, but I feel liberated even though I see life through bars. He does not understand that my work is for posterity. Future generations will gaze upon my work and finally, my artistic genius will be appreciated.

In the end, I wasn't very satisfied with the last shot. Its fake as fuck. Its supposed to be shot directly from the top to create visual impact, it is, the ending after all. In any spread the first and the last shot creates the most lasting impression. This is a good concept wasted because of one defective image. We learn from it, but such a waste of concept.


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Onitsuka Tiger

Ohh yeah, this is what i call an ad.

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I read too, ya kno'

My fascination with serial killers started after the movie Seven, starred Brad Pitt and Kevin Spacey. There's a twist towards the end of the movie that questions morality and duty of upholding the law or personal vengeance. Its one of those movies where the bad guy wins at the end, in a way. If its confusing, you might want to rent the movie and watch it. 

Better still buy it, because it worth to just collect for detective/investigation movie buffs. Other than that, you can try watching Dexter, a TV comedy-drama based on a book by Jeff Lindsay and Criminal Minds about a bunch of really good looking FBI profilers kicking asses and taking names.

After the movie I started researching the net for similar movies. Then I started buying books that research on serial killers mentality. FYI, I don't sneak out in the middle of the night to dismember cats or decapitate unsuspecting joggers at the park but I do have immense interest in why they do the things they do. They are like us, but why is killing a necessity to them? I'd like to delve into their minds and understand what exactly is up with them. Just to satisfy the investigator in me.

You might want to check out the book, Mind Hunter written by former FBI agent, John Douglas one of the pioneers in profiling criminal behavior. The book explains serial killer behavior on a case-by-case basis. Along with Douglas, Robert K. Ressler is also a good read, Whoever Fights Monsters which you can't find in Kinokuniya or Borders. Your best bet should be amazon books. Douglas's approach to serial killers is the good guy versus the bad guy with his book peppered with moral integrity wherelse Ressler's book is the more humane approach to serial killers understanding that it is a need they cannot control. For anyone who has slight interest in serial killers, they should start with Hunting Humans, written by Elliot Leyton, his perspective of serial killers are based on research and his oh-so-coincidental bump into 2 serial killers, which inadvertently fueled his passion to write a book about serial killers. The book is a good start for people who in interested because the author writes the book also as someone who is new to the subject.

They covered cases like the ever-suave Ted Bundy, Dahmer, Ed Kemper and the rest of the most prolific serial killers in American history. But westerners being westerners they failed to cover asians killers. C'mon, are we that unimportant to match the ranks of American killers? You want cannibals? Yeah we have cannibals, go to China and you can see them eating whatever that moves. Which reminds me, its not until recently that Japan had one of their own quirky still-living cannibal, Issei Sagawa, who murdered and ate his dutch woman-friend during his time studying in France. He scored one for the Asians by describing in detail why he did it and allowing interviews with magazines all over Japan to promote himself. I mean, the psycho earns more than me and you by churning out books after books on cannibalism and food recipes (I shit you not!), propelling himself to a somewhat mini celebrity in Japan. Here is an interview in English. Or maybe our very own Mona Fandey a local shaman, whose case generate such publicity that movies were made (and banned) here in Malaysia.

Anyways, do check out the books i recommended for any detective buffs out there. You might be surprise that the killers themselves may not be so different from you and me.

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Designer rant #1

I wouldn't know how the design industry is in other countries but for Malaysia, clients/your boss are your Creative Directors. They always have the old-fashioned notion that whoever pays, they fuckin own you. Here, everybody is a fuckin designer.

"Oh, have you been to Ikea lately? I saw this sofa, I like how the colors mesh together to give an impression of space", says housewife A.
"Really? I thought it was garish and out-of-place, I prefer the one near the entrance, the size and contour is just right for your condo", says housewife B
"Are you sure? They don't have it in red! It fits perfectly to my light orange walls", fishmonger butts in.
"Its a shame, cos' it will liven up the atmosphere by the time, Chinese New Year comes by", interrupts pork seller.

In short, everybody thinks that with minimal color coordination skills, they are fuckin designers. I know everybody is entitled to their opinions, but the designers in Ikea are designers for a reason. Just like how every designer in publishing/advertising/interior/architecture/whatever are. In publishing, there are text and there are layouts. Usually, design is something visual and also subjective. When we layout the text and page, we coordinate between the two to come up with a layout thats easy to read. As with writers, for text you have grammar changes, or maybe changes to style of writing to suite the identity of the mag. But if you are a lowly DTP designer, its easier to give criticism on your layout. It has to go through to editor (to check text), to Art Director then to Creative Director. Before the layout goes to print, 7 changes had already been made to the layout. People always assumed that if you are an Art Director, then you have the best design skills or the best design sense. That's not necessarily the case as I've had my fair share of shite-for-brains Art Directors. Throughout my 9 year stint in publishing, the only Art Director that really taught me was in KLue magazine. He didnt emphasis on design. He emphasis on how designers should think, why it is important to love music and culture, why you should have a spliff once in awhile. He understands that as a designer, you need to grow, and growth as a designer doesn't happen overnight. It is nurtured by the fact that designers shouldn't stop learning. He wasn't your regular Art Director. The rest of the ADs are complete shite. That explains why I was often accused of being difficult and arrogant. They tend to stick to what works. But not how you can push the magazine further by doing what everybody else is not doing. I can never say I'm a good designer because if you're already that damn good, the learning stops.

Which brings me back to why design is such a difficult issue here. Trust is important between bosses/clients and designers. If you can't even trust your designer, you might as well learn photoshop yourself. They need to understand that no designers want their work to look like shit. We actually position the text and images for optimum readability only to have the clients/bosses change it because........ the green is "not nice". That's the thing, you want quality design for the lowest possible price and on top of that with a gazillion changes done to it. And most of the time, the brief from the client is always, "I don't know la, you just design to make it more luxurious la, errr..... no copy wor, but you figure out the copy on your own la.. I don't know la.. its all up to u la..you are the creative person here". I understand the client cannot really visualize the artwork unless he sees the first draft. Would it be easier if you just let the designer know the specifics, so all the dilly dallying can be eliminated. I need red, i need blue, i need patterns, i need it in illustration. The finished artwork resembles the clients handiwork but its just the designer thats tapping the mouse. Might as well hire my nephew to tap on the keyboard.
We shouldn't complain really. End of the day, we still get the cash, but would you wanna put it up at your portfolio? This trend encourages designers to be lazy. Hey, doesn't really matter if the money comes in eh? Oh no, you can fight for your design, tell the client what you really think. Explain to him, I'm sure he/she would understand. Its fine if your client is willing to listen but does it occur to you that its super-rare to bump into clients who is willing to reason here? What they need from a freelance designer is fast, super nice design, and cheap. I had come across clients who overlaps changes after changes on several different jobs. Working solo. And the dateline is supposed to be yesterday. It too confusing to even explain the design which had already gone through 20 changes. With tight datelines and enormous quantity, we need to adapt to the clients demands. There's always a compromise when you need the design to be awesome for minimum wage, we need time to conceptualize and brainstorm. But an award-winning design with yesterdays dateline and over 7 different jobs that needs to be amended while working solo, near impossible. You can't argue that you give them a rm800 design when they pay that amount, because you agreed to it. If you don't want to do the job, the client can easily call up any designer who can offer them a better price with faster turnaround time. We are dispensable.

Everybody thinks that designers are not as important as sales people or marketing people. Haiyah, for magazine its just template design. You just position the text and images only wat. I beg to differ. If it doesn't require actual brainwork, I would like to be there to work. Everybody plays an important in publishing.

My point being in the whole rant, is that I feel designers are under-appreciated here. Your role is to design what I tell you to design cos' I pay your salary/creative fee. Why there are more creative and brilliant design out there overseas is because society is open to new, fresh ideas. And designers do not confine themselves to designing what works, but pushing fresh risky ideas out. It helps that clients there are broad-minded about design as well. All we need is for clients/bosses to trust us designer and let us explore creative like we are supposed to.


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Nike Spread 02

Nike was impressed with the first shoot that I did. Then they decided to do another one for the ACG line just for Newman magazine. I went to sneakerfreaker.com to search for any info regarding the line. It was very comprehensive cos' they also cover the interviews from the makers, its origins and how you can utilize your kicks.
So for whatever info you need regarding sneakers, they're your hookup. Initially I was told the ACG line was designed solely for water use. I remembered seeing some optical illusion way back when I was working for AirAsia but was unable to implement the idea. They weren't that keen on exploring and pushing design ideas for the magazine. It needs to be safe, as long as the text is readable and design is so-so. Blehh.. This is the image that I planned to use for the idea. The digital artist from the studio and I spent hours discussing and drawing the pattern to experiment how to slip this inside the fashion spread.

• To make it transparent in the background cannot work cos' its not obvious enough.
• To use the pattern and alter the objects to leaves would require too much time and work. Not favorable to magazine dateline
• To switch the patterns to fishes would require us to shoot fishes separately in different angles.In the end, 2 factors stopped us from executing it, the rights for the wave pattern, which is from this japanese professor. His website is here, with more optical illusion to zone out to. And also the ACG line is not solely for water use. I was quite persistent to use the water effect. So I came up with another idea to shoot the models underwater just to get the lighting that forms only when you are underwater. We have Azwin Andy, good-looking muthafucker and all-time undisputed state swimmer from the band called Estranged, Raoul from One Buck Short, Arafah a.k.a Arabyrd and also Zher Peen, NTV7 host. It doesn't help that this spread is rushed out from the start, the studio doesn't have the camera housing, we have a budget to adhere to so we can't rent scuba equipment and also the apparels came in later than expected. So the dateline for this shoot is pulled all the way back to end of month. In the end, we rent the entire Bukit Jalil olympic size pool stadium from 7pm to 7am. And even that we had to negotiate the timing and the availability in order not to compromise the olympic swimmers training. Fucktards. We start shooting with Andy, pure logic and common sense, since the guy is a state swimmer. He was very versatile as expected, doing poses that we set for him. But it is Arafah that really surprised me with her agile and flexible poses underwater. Its fuckin America's Next Top Model shit in freakin Bukit Jalil! I think she did over 100+ poses. We knew how difficult it is to pose and breathe underwater but she managed to pull it off beautifully, between intervals of course. We had 3 assistant underwater on standby just incase shit happens. Its 18 feet deep by the way. The photographer and I stood by a small plastic window that is built underwater so we can shoot without being in the pool. Yeah, its damn easy for you, chillax-ing in the dry cubicle so the rest have to work their asses of underwater. Fuckin wrong wei. I had to run up and down, to the pool and below the pool just to direct the models to pose. Imagine there's 4 models doing over 300+ poses, how many times do i need to run up and down the stairs to tell them how to pose? They not exactly trained models. Just ambassadors for Nike's ACG line that are going the whole nine yards just to get the shoot done. Kudos to them, I say. After the shit I put them through, he he he he...... We finish the shoot by 4am. Even the client were there for support all the way. The beer gut that I had? All gone and toned by the end of the night.

We insist they put on goggles to see where they're heading or the directions they have to swim to, for the lighting above to cover them. The second day was done with the same clothes and poses that we initially chose. Just this time we superimposed the faces with the body shots in the pool. We had the makeup artist to imitate sea life patterns on their faces. We will apply fish scales on them in Photoshop. All thats left is the digital imaging. IFL studios, known for their superb skill in Digital Imaging, had only 3 days to pull of the fastest D.I for 4 shots with background in the history of Photoshop. Usually for fashion spread, heavy D.I is a big no-no. But in my case, I had to rely on D.I to pull off the entire spread.
I wasn't very happy with the final outcome of the spread given the tight schedule before the magazine goes to print. We tried our best, even not sleeping to finish the spread. The one image that I wasn't happy about was the end page, in front of Shibuya. When applying digital imaging, one needs to think logically on where the light falls, or is the depth of field correct? You can see models are flying all over the place, but models that is way back, the least to be seen, needs to be abit blurry to show depth of field. You can't be far away and still look sharp and clear. It doesn't gel with the background either, with the background being blurry and the model super-clear. Plus the D.I looks fake, even cartoonish on the last shot. Well, whatever's done, is done. We just learn and move on.









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Survival Style 5+

Another movie to assault the senses after the one i reviewed before is also a product from Japan, land of extremes. But this is supposed to be a design blog, you say. Well, I take whatever that inspires me and i jot it down here.

Throughout my movie reviews in the near future, I might be reviewing movies that might not be necessarily award-winning, nail-bitingly awesome. But there are certain parts in that movie which deserves creative mention. I'm not gonna ditch the movie just because the storyline suck ass. There are also certain aesthetic values which makes the movie appealing, the stage setup of the movie, the color filters that they use, the styling of characters, etc etc...

In this case, this movie is insanely good, in terms of visuals and storyline. You know there are some movies that is insanely funny, like snatch, and that it only gets better if you accompany the movie with a group of stoner friends and a couple of joints?

Yeah, thats what I'm talking about. This is one of those movies.
Its a set of 5 stories intertwined with each other to produce an intoxicating blend of insanity and wackiness. The movie doesn't make sense and it doesn't expect you to do so but sit yo ass and go along with the ride. It starts of with Aman (Tadanobu Asano), shovelling dirt to bury his wife (Reika Hashimoto). When he goes home, his wife is very much alive and waiting for him. Its the calm before the storm when the wife unleash all fury as she proceeds to annihilate her husband with all sorts of kitchen utensils within reach accompanied with blaring rock track by Rob Laufer entitled "Go, Go, Go". The movie then breaks of with the opening credits with bold use of fonts and colors, striking red juxtaposed with bright yellow in true MTV style. Such is the boldness of the movie that sets the tone for the rest of it.I really like how they set the house that Asano lives in with his wife, very garish but it also works at the same time. Clashing colors with wacky ornaments all over the house. It must have been a damn pain to collect all the props and re-do the damn house for this movie. But I guess one can find anything in Tokyo to cater to their tastes, be it horrendous or classy. I realised the effort into creating such a set and how it needs to compliment the direction/insanity of the movie. Also small little things like the internal decoration of the minivan in story number 4, very retro and colorful. In one of the more laidback story, the use of soft pastel tones throughout the entire setting can be seen with everything is perfect order, shelves tuck nicely objects lined up neatly, while the more atrocious stories get the in-your-face, bold-as-hell colour treatment with props slammed all over the place.

The movie is supported by heavyweights like the ever-flexible, oddball, Johnny Depp of the east –Tadanobu Asano, Hiroshi Abe, Ittoku Kishibe and Vinnie Jones, yeah, psycho Vinnie... all 5 stories come together finally to form a satisfying end. I'm not gonna spoil everything for you. This visual feast of a movie satisfies your love for oddball cinema. Go ahead. Purchase it, light one up and enjoy the ride.

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Groovisions

As mentioned in the previous post, one of Rip Slyme's album cover is done by a design agency called Groovisions from Tokyo, Japan. I am unclear of the designers names and their origins (update me if you happen to find more of their info), cos' I dun read japanese well, but their portfolio speaks volumes on how awesome their work is.

I really like how they incorporate cleanliness and simplicity in every one of their work. Even if the artwork is congested, they manage to find ways to balance out the congestion with play of space and color coordination. I've learned alot on how they make even the simplest of design appealing with their choice selection of colors.

Choice word of the day: Simple


One of their more notable signature is their chocolate confectionary corporate identity design for Meiji chocolates that ranges from packaging (which is particularly like) to bags to t-shirts to gift wraps. The website for the chocolate shop is here. You can view how they labeled the chocolates with numbers, each numbers indicates make of chocolate and origins. Very nice. During my last trip to tokyo I couldn't manage to find the damn shop, which is in Roppongi. The damn address didn't help either after navigating through rows and rows of shops and buildings. Shame, that would make great souvenirs for friends.



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Rip Slyme

This is an extremely raunchy music video I happen to find while surfing Youtube. Rip Slyme hail from Kanagawa, Japan and compose of 4 MCs; Ryo-Z, Ilmari, Pes & Su, and 1 DJ, Fumiya.

I particularly like this video. Its a tongue-in-cheek video with loads of bling and very willing women, a typical look at how rappers are usually perceived to be. The song is infectious as hell, with memorable piano loops laden with old-school hip hop beats. Some of their album covers are done by a design agency called Groovisions, which I will be blogging on soon.

For detail junkies, this is their info.

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Tekkon Kinkreet

Have you ever stumbled upon something so visually commanding that you just stood and gawk by the sheer awesomeness of it all? Such is the power of Tekkon Kinkreet, a japanese animation based on a comic that featured two orphan kids, Black and White.

The animation won several awards after the screening in RESFest on 2006. I've watched it twice. The story doesn't do much for me. The subtitles in english are not even accurate. Of course, I purchased the *ahem* version. It doesn't help that my less-than-stellar command of jap are getting rustier. Basically its about 2 kids trying to protect their town, set in fictional japan from the invasion of yakuzas. I have yet to read the manga.

But what sets this anime from others is the effort they made to make the town as real as possible. Every single detail is animated to perfection. The are panning shots of cityscapes, low angle shots of the town and action scenes that spans from one block to another. And I'm talking detailed sceneries. I'm addicted to images of cityscapes and concrete jungle recently. Their level of commitment to detail is as such you can even see rust on pots and pans hanging from a dilapidated wooden shophouse full of torn ads and poster. Fuck, how did that ever make sense? Just watch the gawddam anime.


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Clazziquai Project

Being a fan of acid/electro jazz, I was digging the net for more asian jazz bands when i came upon Clazziquai Project back in 2005, with their first album Instant Pig. Do not let the quirky album name fool you into giving their music a miss. The band is one of the freshest (at that time) Korean electro jazz band I've ever heard.

I was wondering, how did I ever miss this? They are not the usual love ballad crooners for those stupid-ass sappy korean dramas. The music are a mix-match of electro, bossa and acid jazz, some of their songs are in english (their pronounciation is fucked, but you can overlook that cos' they make good music) and I've never heard of a Korean jazz band this good. The band consist of DJ Clazzi, Cristina and Alex initially, but Cristina was later replaced by cutie Horan who sound just as hot with the vocals. Their music is used for several dramas and movies. So far, they have released 3 albums and several remixes that are extremely good save for the remixes. Furthermore, they are so popular in their homeland, they even have PSP rhythm games made with their tracks ala' Guitar Heroes.

For the detail junkies, this is their wiki info.

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the nike spread 01

Concept & Art Direction Saru   

Photography & Digital Imaging Norman Tang/IFL STUDIO   

Styling Desmond Chok  
Hair & Make Up STEPHANIE/eiei entertainment   

Models ELVANNA RAINE, JOE FLIZZOW, MOOTS & JULIANA SOPHIE EVANS

This is a shoot done for Newman March issue. I had this idea for a year but didn't have the appropriate medium to output this concept. I've been tweaking it within a year, the angles, the lighting, the mood and how it should appear after its been printed. For Nike, their branding pretty much follows the tagline "Just Do It".

I envisioned several ideas that revolves around having illuminated buildings that formed the swoosh logo. So i had the models appear as urban parkour warriors traveling through cityscapes without a hint of fear, jumping through buildings and rails. Initially my idea was to have the models running through the path with colour spreading on grimmy and colorless buildings and walkways. Something like this:-

 

But the final output was such it wasn't cool or stylish enough, so i had the effect altered to smoke forming within the pair of shoes their wearing. The spread is done to promote Nike's running line anyways, so its only appropriate to focus more on the shoes. Also a concept like that wouldn't gel with the illuminated building concept. You can have an awesome DPS (double page spread) opener but if the following pages doesn't flow with the opener, it would be pretty pointless cramming everything into one spread. The final product is exactly the one you see here. 

I had total freedom on how I wanna do the shoot after weeks of discussion with the client. She was skeptical on how its gonna look like, if its gonna look cheesy or the spread wouldn't compliment the tagline. I myself wouldn't know how its gonna turn out. Of course you have the concept in your head, the details sorted, the feel of the spread, but bear in mind that the process of a shoot still goes through the photographer, the stylist, the makeup. Its not just a one man show. Certain times, the photographer may shoot the model at a different angle, which means your background should be angled correctly to suit the angle of the model. During that time, if what the photographer shoot turns out to be better than what you had in mind, then its time to improvise because things rarely happened the way you want it. What if the model can't pose they way you want her to? What if you cannot manage to find an appropriate image to superimposed to the background?

The shoot

It took us 3 days to shoot this. Before that I myself went to several locations. The first was to cover the illuminated building. Near Setapak, an old 19-floor apartment that houses all the foreign construction workers. I notice the lights on the corridor of the apartments never switches off during the night. If looked from afar, it resembles pixels. Perfect for my concept. Second place was some backlane in  Pudu, filled with junkies and society's washouts. Lastly, all the parking lots in within the Golden Triangle area. First day we covered just the building. It needs to be shot at night when all the lights are on. I'm thinking, how is the angle gonna affect the model. in the end we shot from the 15th floor to the 19th floor. Its just me and the photographer here. He took those images with high aperture and low aperture. Doing it enables him to superimpose of the lights off to form a swoosh logo on unwanted apartments within the swoosh logo. The whole ordeal took us from 7pm to 1am.

Second day, we went to Pudu. We need to capture several shots of construction sites and parking lots. This time we had an assistant with us to haul the equipment around KL. I remembered went we were walking around some back alley, we saw an opening through the construction gates. The area is filled with several slabs of unfinished pillars jutting out from the pond with steel bars on the end of each pillar, we thought thats gonna be cool if implemented on some of the buildings. The photographer was so enthusiasted he just shove his head along with his camera through the damn gates to shoot the pillars. What he didn't realized is that beside him, a stoned out junkie was squatting huddled up enjoying his high. I saw that and quickly drag the grapher out of the opening. As we walk along the backstreet, it amazes me that how come I hadn't been to this area before, within KL but so secluded from public. Everywhere is filled with junkies, all if them have that blank stare. Guess they're fuckin' stoned to high heaven to notice us invading their territory. They're just littered along the street, some with used mattresses stretched along the street for them to sleep on. We hurried on with the shots. By the time we're done it's already 5pm. 

Third day was done inside the studio. Nike decided that they gonna use their own ambassadors for their running line. We had Elvanna on 9am. She was already there at 8:30am! Talk about professionalism. She's now in that local comedy, Mr. Siao's Mandarin school or something. Couldn't be arse to watch the damn telly. But she is tighter than a muthaf.... First time I saw her was like, dayummmmmm gurllll...... me glad we got her for the shoot. The next one we got was Joe Flizzow. I was thinking that he's gonna come down the studio, getting all gangsta' on my ass, yo we keepin' it real, keep it on the lodown, ain't gonna be disrupting my flow yo.. with spit coming out the sides of his mouth like some rappers. But no air on Mr. Hotshit rapper. Guy's relaxed without a hint of cockiness. Saw me pass me his latest CD. Awesome.The last 2 was Moots and Sophie Evans. All are extremely cooperative with the shoot. Reason why we had to superimposed the background was that it's dangerous shooting in areas such as the ones i mentioned.

After the spreads been printed on the mag, everybody's happy. I'm glad everything turns out well, we've receive compliments from different clients for the shoot. But what they don't realized is that its a team effort. I didn't do it alone. Of course I was directing it all the while. But is a team effort. Of course I don't have the on-the-scene images to show cos' I'm too lazy to take them. And in all, it was a spread worth sweating for. I will update soon with other spreads that I've done. Cheers.

the lengthy version