Being Aware - A Fashion Film Retrospective

Being Aware - A Fashion Film Retrospective 
By Niccolò Montanari - Fashion Film and Video Consultant

 “Agreeing on a vision does not mean compromising on quality in order to please everyone.”"

Over the past ten years we have seen a rapid growth of platforms catering for the fashion film genre. This term seems to have brought together all that video content with a strong emphasis on style that goes beyond being a moving lookbook or a behind-the-scenes.
Though people may differ in defining fashion film, what makes this genre is different creative industries working together, such as fashion, film and adver- tising, to deliver emotionally compelling and engaging video content.

 
Act! Cut! Play! was a project conceived as a way to develop and explore the relationship between several creative disciplines. “Fashion, film and theatre have come together on equal terms to deliver examples of how we can raise the quality and creativity of the fashion film genre”, explained Branko Popovic, FASHIONCLASH co-director and Act! Cut! Play! partner. Three teams formed by a fashion designer, a film director and theatre maker produced three unique pieces of video content that challenge the traditional approach to fashion film. Here’s what I have learnt after speaking to them.
Each film handled the portrayal of fashion in a completely different way. Both Your Approval Is Not Essential as well as The Parallel Pyramid Platform have fashion play an almost supporting role. The former places narrative at the centre, with fashion there to impact visually on the storyline. The latter on the other hand looks at fashion not as clothing, but rather as a tool to define, divide and group people together. The third film - iii - fits more within the traditional view of fashion film. Strong aesthetics play the leading role here, with narrative helping shape the message behind the film. Although the result is three very different fashion films, there are some shared key takeaways from the teams involved.
Though the definition of fashion film is yet to be agreed on, the overall vision of what is being produced should be aligned from the very beginning. The focus should be on deciding how the different disciplines interact with one another, whether any of them take the lead or are there to support and provide visual impact to the narrative. The aim isn’t to stand out as the main discipline, but rather to determine the correct formula to bring the vision to life.

Niccolò Montanari

Agreeing on a vision does not mean compromising on quality in order to please everyone. It means understanding the fundamental creative and visual principles shared by all and building from there. Being able to trust in each other’s talent and having an awareness of how each discipline works allows for the contributors to think differently about their own way of working. As a result, this will lead to a unique and innovative production that will most likely not fit within a conventional film category. Understanding where the story lies is a vital step in the creation of valuable video content. With film generally functioning as a storytelling canvas, disciplines such as fashion and theatre become the tools to bring the story to life. Even though each discipline comes with its own narrative, the aim is to work backwards and transport the overall agreed narrative into each discipline and work with it accordingly. Fashion film is a young genre, for which rules are yet to be defined.

Act! Cut! Play! succeeded in having us explore and question our general approach to fashion film. Rather than films about fashion, adverts or a series of striking visuals, we have seen what can be achie - ved by approaching fashion film as the union of several creative disciplines. This fresh perspective should be used as a stepping stone to explore this genre through other creatives fields, such as music, dance, illustration or architecture. By agreeing on a vision, and gaining a deeper understanding of each other’s as well as our own expertise, fashion film has the potential to become an excellent tool for the creative industries looking to innovate with video content in the digital era.

ASVOFF9

'The Parallel Pyramid Platform', one of the films from our project Act!Cut!Play! is part of the official 'in competition' selection of the ASVOFF9.

'The Parallel Pyramid Platform' is a fashion film by Studio Dennis Vanderbroeck (performer), Daniel van Hauten (filmmaker, Wedovoodoo.Tv) and Emmanuel A. Ryngaert (fashion designer).

The international launch of ASVOFF 9 will be held in Sofia at Nu Boyana Film Studios June 9-11.
For the 9th edition of A Shaded View on Fashion Film [ASVOFF], founder and director of the festival Diane Pernet has invited her prestigious guests to ‘the Hollywood of the Balkans’, Nu Boyana Film Studios in Sofia, Bulgaria. Guests will be arriving from New York City, Los Angeles, Beijing, London, Berlin, Barcelona and of course, Paris.

Over three-days, more than 100 films will be screened at ASVOFF, the world’s first film festival dedicated to fashion, style and beauty. In addition to the 70 incompetition films there are 2 out of competition films, 5 documentaries, 12 student films, 13 wearable technology fashion films and 5 master classes during the festivities from June 9-11, 2017.

crew of 'The Parallel Pyramid Platform', photo by Joris Hilterman

ASVOFF 9 will bring together cinematic greats and maverick directors in competition. They include Sean Baker, best known for his independent feature films Tangerine, Prince of Broadway, Take Out and Starlet; Ivan Olita; Tim Yip, the director that won two awards for art direction, sets and costumes for Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger; Ellen von Unwerth; Emir Erlap and Daniel Askill. RANKIN’s tongue and cheek documentary about fashion and the 24 year-old artist, photographer and filmmaker Petra Collins behind the film Gucci Dreamscape will be sure to entertain.

With an ability to inhabit both arthouse and blockbuster productions, an exceptional group of acting talent feature in this year's selection including Kristen Stewart, Rossy de Palma, Emmanuelle Seigner, Waris, Dita Von Teese and Lady Gaga. Some of the many fashion brands which have commissioned films or feature in the ASVOFF 9 programme are: Gucci, Chanel, Dior, Kenzo, Yohji Yamamoto Hermes, Prada and many more. The festival offers a unique opportunity to discover both established and emerging brands and directors.


ASVOFF9 - This edition we take you where you've never been. from Diane Pernet's ASVOFF on Vimeo.

One of the many attractions during the festival will be a 48-minute homage to Bruce Weber, a living legend whose creative instincts have defined whole eras of photography, fashion and cinema over the course of his four-decade-long career. Meanwhile, the inimitable artist and wife of Alejandro Jodorowsky, Pascale Montandon-Jodorowsky will take us behind the scenes with a fly on the wall documentary of the making of Jodorowsky’s last film, Endless Poetry.

Act! Cut! Play! at Motel Mozaique Festival

Act! Cut! Play! fashion films screened at
Motel Mozaique Festival in Rotterdam!

Act! Cut! Play! in Antwerp

On 9th of February Act! Cut! Play! was presented in Antwerp at De Studio. In Addition to the screenings of the films, there was an installation of the costumes from ‘The Parallel Pyramid Platform’ and designer Marie-Sophie Beinke from the film 'iii'.

Take a look at images below, photography Ian Segal.

ACT! CUT! PLAY! is a interdisciplinary project that aims to bring the quality of fashion film to the next level by creating a prominent role for the performing arts (theater/dance maker). Three teams based of Dutch and Flemish theatermakers, designers and filmmakers where challenged to jointly investigate the possibilities and limits of their disciplines within the genre of ‘fashion film’. Starting with the stories of theater/dance makers three short fashion films are developed and showcased internationally in both the fashion, theater and art world.

Three films & Participants

Film: ‘Your approval is not essential’ Scheuller de Waal (fashion designers – Philipp Schueller en Rens de Waal) Jelena Kostić (choreographer) Leen Michiels (filmmaker, MosoTheCat)

Film: ‘The Parallel Pyramid Platform’ Studio Dennis Vanderbroeck (performer) Daniel van Hauten (filmmaker, Wedovoodoo.Tv) Emmanuel A. Ryngaert (modeontwerper)

Film ‘iii’ Suze Milius (theatremaker, House Crying Yellow Tears) Marie-Sophie Beinke (fashion designer) Femke Huurdeman (filmmaker)

More information: http://fashionclash.nl/act-cut-play/

ACT! CUT! PLAY! on display in Amsterdam

ACT! CUT! PLAY! was presented in Amsterdam during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Amsterdam on Saturday 28th go January. The screening took place at Westerunie venue in the framework of the official schedule of the fashion week. Aynouk Tan moderated the event with a contextual introduction  on the fashion film and a Q&A with the makers.
In addition there was an presentation at Vlaams Cultuurhuis De Brakke Grond from 26th until 29th of January.
Next screening is organized by MoMu Antwerp at De Studio in Antwerp on February 9th. -> info.

ACT! CUT! PLAY! is a interdisciplinary project that aims to bring the quality of fashion film to the next level by creating a prominent role for the performing arts (theater/dance maker). Three teams based of Dutch and Flemish theatermakers, designers and filmmakers where challenged to jointly investigate the possibilities and limits of their disciplines within the genre of ‘fashion film’. Starting with the stories of theater/dance makers three short fashion films are developed and showcased internationally in both the fashion, theater and art world.

Three films & Participants
Team 1 – Film: ‘Your approval is not essential’ Scheuller de Waal (fashion designers – Philipp
Schueller en Rens de Waal) Jelena Kostić (choreographer) Leen Michiels (filmmaker, MosoTheCat)

Team 2 – Film: ‘The Parallel Pyramid Platform’ Studio Dennis Vanderbroeck (performer) Daniel van Hauten (filmmaker, Wedovoodoo.Tv) Emmanuel A. Ryngaert (modeontwerper)

Team 3 – Film ‘iii’ Suze Milius (theatremaker, House Crying Yellow Tears) Marie-Sophie Beinke (fashion designer) Femke Huurdeman (filmmaker)


More information: http://fashionclash.nl/act-cut-play/

Act! Cut! Play! Fashion Films

On December 16 three brand new fashion films premiered at Lumière Cinema in Maastricht, and will from now on travel the globe in the international fashion-theatre-, film- and art world.  

Act! Cut! Play! is a new interdisciplinary talent development project that has the ambition to lift the quality of fashion films to a higher level. Three teams existing of a designer, theatre maker, and filmmaker from either the Netherlands or Flanders, where challenged to work together to investigate the possibilities and boundaries of their disciplines and the provided ‘format’ of the fashion film. With the incorporation of a theatre maker, the three teams where challenged to make the narrative an important element within the films.

Act! Cut! Play! is an initiative of FASHIONCLASH, Flemish Arts Centre De Brakke Grond and MoMu – ModeMuseum Provincie Antwerpen.

Project format
These three interdisciplinary teams collaborated on the development of three short fashion films from start to end. Previously, fashion films were mostly used by brands as a moving lookbook for their new collections. Over the course of the last years the fashion film has been on the rise: fashion film festivals are popping up across the globe. The films are becoming more innovative and visually striking, but what stands out is that in both national as well as international fashion films the narrative is under developed, and subordinate to its visual qualities. This is precisely what makes this an excellent opportunity to combine fashion, theatre and film and mold it into the right shape.

Première & Presentation
On December 16th the three films premiered at Lumière Cinema in Maastricht.
After this the Act! Cut! Play! films will travel all over the globe starting from Amsterdam at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week (26 – 29 January 2017 in De Brakke Grond 28 January 2017 in de Westerunie), Antwerp (De Studio, 9 February 2017), Cinedans (16 -20 March 2017), FASHIONCLASH Festival (29 June – 2 July 2017) and several other stages including international fashion film festivals.

The films

‘Your approval is not essential’
Scheuller de Waal (fashion designers - Philipp Schueller & Rens de Waal), Jelena Kostić (choreographer), Leen Michiels (filmmaker, MosoTheCat) 

When a chance supermarket encounter unlocks untapped passion in an ordinary woman, her grey life quickly goes into sensory overload. ‘Your approval is not essential’ sheds a colourful, whimsical light on what happens when you let go of your inhibitions and – out of the blue – start embracing life’s quirky pleasures.

Your approval is not essential
photo: Nikola Kostic

The Parallel Pyramid Platform
Studio Dennis Vanderbroeck (performer), Daniel van Hauten (filmmaker),Emmanuel A. Ryngaert (fashion designer)
"The Parallel Pyramid Platform" is a highly aesthetic and witty game show in which sixteen contestants construct a gigantic pyramid shaped sculpture, working with and against each other, in order to make it to the top first. A film that explores the friction between the individual versus the collective. A never-ending universe in which, as the sculpture grows, blue becomes red. How one can only replace the inevitable void by start building.

The Parallel Pyramid Platform
photo: Joris Hilterman

iii
Suze Milius (theatremaker, House Crying Yellow Tears) Marie-Sophie Beinke (fashion designer) Femke Huurdeman (filmmaker)

In the world of iii, senses double themselves in order to make one woman complete. It's time to reckon with this shit! 

iii
photo: Joost de Haas