A NEW KIND OF FILMMAKING
I feel like I’m involved in a new documentary form; it’s short-form, five to seven minutes or less, and it pulls heavily from my background as a designer. It reflects my past as a motion graphic artist. I use a lot of what I learned doing Flash animations in these pieces—establishing a rhythm and trying to highlight a theme—to tell a story in a very short period of time. Flash taught me a lot about visual narrative; I learned it from doing those little 10- to 20-second Flash pieces. I also learned restraint, since in the early days low bandwidth necessitated using only those visual components that were absolutely necessary. In terms of these designer pieces, one notable thing is that I’m not using . lm. It’s digital video. I tend to use a lot of still images that I freeze from the video footage of the designers at work in their studios, and that’s coming directly from my experience as a web motion designer, where I had no choice but to use still images. There’s a technical benefit as well: A single still image will compress better than full-frame rate video, and thus demand less bandwidth.

I employ a lot of motion graphics in these pieces, as well, to display the artists’ work. Since I’m making these films for the web, I know my frame size is going to be small and some of the artists’ work, say the text in a poster, won’t be legible. So I use motion graphics to zoom in on text, illustration, and imagery, then pull back to reveal the work in its full composition. My goal is also to—hopefully—get to the essence of the work itself, to make art the bedrock of these pieces.

With the Victore piece I was looking for the energy, the splatter. In the beginning, you’ll see extreme close-ups from a pretty powerful poster, with the energy and immediacy in his brush strokes. For Milton’s piece I tried to show the lyricism, the curve, the sensuality of his work, the brushstroke. In Paula’s piece I wanted to capture the energy of her type work, its color and vibrancy. And with Stefan, I wanted to show the deep conceptual nature of his work and the humor he uses.

What I’m often doing in these films is using motion to freeze time, to reveal the work. Hopefully, in that frozen moment another layer of the work is revealed, one that isn’t present on first viewing. If I just threw the pieces up there, they’d still be great but I wouldn’t be using time to my advantage. I’m always aware of trying to establish an editing rhythm, and that’s partly intuitive, guided by unspoken signals in my own head, and partly guided by both the subject and the work. My goal has always been to, simply, celebrate the work of my favorite designers —work that has made it easier for me to be a designer. It’s an honor and it’s a lot of fun. Next on deck: David Carson and Pablo Ferro.

Be sure to check out behind the scene footage shot exclusively for STEP!

HILLMAN CURTIS | www.hillmancurtis.com