Fashion Filmmaking
Oh the joy of making your first film. The excitement, the challenge, the application of still photography into a moving object… Seriously, what was the hell was I thinking? As digital video invades the photographic medium new ideas and serious conflicts begin to arise. I can see that many of us are trying to cross the line into this new medium, but converging two completely different ideas can become very daunting and confusing. I was quickly taught this recently while working on a short film of my own, Siren Visions. I have always had a love for film; Filmmakers, Jean Luc Goddard and Jim Jarmusch are among my favorites. I am also a fan of German expressionism and much of my work is inspired by it. So with the arrival of all this new technology and a love for the big screen, I can’t deny the lure of entering a new world of moving pictures.
I first decided to create my recent video, Siren Visions, after seeing many of Steven Klein’s fashion videos. I must say he is among the few photographer’s that I have seen accomplish the adoption of video with a consistent style and level of creativity. I did feel these fashion videos were missing something that I couldn’t quite put my finger on so I was excited to find out the Dior had hired Filmmaker David Lynch for a 16 minute fashion short called Lady Blue Shanghai. Maybe a filmmaker (even a non-conventional one) would bring a bit more plot and story structure to the genre.
Those of you who are familiar with Lynch, Lady Dior Blue Shanghai is a direct correlation to his past corpus of work. Lynch added his version of story structure which I unfortunately found to be slow and incomprehensible. In comparing the two directors, it becomes obvious that Lynch’s background is clearly rooted in filmmaking where Klein’s work is deeply rooted in fashion. Product placement in movies is often an afterthought forced on a filmmaker for financial considerations where in advertising the product is the main focus. Maybe this is where the disconnect begins in merging both fashion advertising and film.
Looking back on the making of my Siren Visions, I have now become aware that I did not maintain the much-needed focus on fashion advertisement like I intended to, rather I focused almost completely on the story line. I came to the realization that it is exhausting when attempting to make a fashion film narrative. Having to keep an eye on both aspects is a difficult and complex task.
The problem is figuring out how to combine product placement and advertisements with a strong story line without loosing the appeal.
As it goes now, I will keep calling these fashion pieces vignettes instead of shorts or films because that is precisely what they are. They have no beginning, middle, or end. The plots are typically weak and if they slightly present themselves there is never any resolution in the end. The problem is figuring out how to combine product placement and advertisements with a strong story line without loosing the appeal. I am confident that as more filmmakers and photographers work and experiment on this new type of art form, it will flourish into something beautiful for both the art and the advertising world. Until then all of us as visual artists shooting motion will have to keep working at it until we master the art of the fashion film.
Siren Visions from Amberlie Bankoff on Vimeo.
