„Das Absurde kann jeden beliebigen Menschen an jeder beliebigen Straßenecke anspringen.“
Albert Camus
Nicht nur an jeder Straßenecke lauert das Absurde, sondern in uns und in jeder unserer Handlungen. Denn schussendlich sind wir stets zu einem verturteilt – zum Scheitern. Daran verzweifeln, aber, müssen wir nicht.
(mehr …)
After a rather long time working under the pressures of different agencies and even running one for just over two years, I was in a bit of a creative rut. Going full-time freelance was one of the things that changed things up for me. The other, was being invited to exhibit at the TAKE Festival for Independent Fashion and Art by the wonderful artist and co-founder of slow-fashion label Natural Nuance Lisa Niedermayr.
(mehr …)Music is a marvellous thing. So seeing both this song and this video come together – through first live performances, sound production, mastering, filming and video pos-production – was a wonderful thing. Stressful at times, but wonderful.
I’ll openly admit it here and now: it’s fun to plan a video shoot minute by minute with shot lists and call sheets, and assistants buzzing around – and seeing it all come together. But it is nothing compared to recognising yourself and your intuitions in the semi-planned camera movements of a live music video.
![Instagram Stories is not „storytelling“ [rant]](https://phoxography.files.wordpress.com/2018/04/screen-shot-2018-04-07-at-16-13-38.png?w=800&h=450&crop=1 "Instagram Stories is not „storytelling“ [rant]")
STILL everyone keeps talking about storytelling without having a single clue about what constitutes a story. Especially now that everyone and their aunt is using „Instagram Stories“ they think they’re storytelling. If that’s you, let me tell you: You’re not!
Instagram Stories is like playing with play-doh!
Don’t get me wrong: I love Instagram Stories – it’s like playing with play-doh. You literally use your hands and fingers to draw, you move around capturing visuals, you talk to yourself, you show it to your friends and get instant gratification. It’s marvellous.
But story doesn’t just record events, it structures them, it gives them meaning, it frames them in a way we can learn from them. And, most importantly, a story only begins when there is something at stake.
The flamingo image from my recent IG Takeover for Danone is almost a story! It introduces two characters using visual cues and touches on the fear of being rejected (the question mark). Still, it is not a story! Why do they want to be friends? What stands in their way? How might they overcome that obstacle? We learn nothing of this. What it is, is the first sentence of one.
Storytelling is the very specific craft and it’s now how you hold your camera.
Now watch this video spot I created for the MA 48 (Vienna’s municipal department charged with keeping the city clean):
Storytelling is the very specific craft and it’s now how you hold your camera or what information you convey. It’s in the moments you don’t notice. Re-Watch how, after meeting her prince again, Cinderella looks down before the camera cuts to her feet. That’s the craft, that’s the logic we create. Everyone can hold a camera or talk about how they did something. But it requires craft to create logic.
Being a Video Creator isn’t easy at times – like when a client asks you to create 30 storytelling video spots in 3 days and as many locations (that’s about a video every half hour, for those who are as talented in math as me 😉 ) So I got together with Noah Gusenbauer, one of Austria’s most prolific YouTube Influencers, gathered a few fellow creative heroes, and did the impossible.
Vienna’s MA48, the municipal department of waste management, asked me to bring one of their print campaigns to the small screen: social media. So I gathered a gang of creative heroes and created a series of web shorts telling the secret story behind the print sujet: how a terrible date turned into an almost unstoppable force of Zombie-Pigs laying (literal) waste to the city, only to be led into a trap by the series‘ heroine.
I’ve always loved photographing actors. It’s so easy to tell intricate character-stories with their expressions! See for yourself below!
As the name suggests, „creative direction“ – be it in fashion photography, advertising, fine art portraiture or any other creative endeavour – requires a direction in which you move your team. So this is the story of a girl, a modern Ronja Räubertochter, and her photographer.
If fashion and photography don’t tell tales of adventure, you’re doing it wrong.This is why there’s no better song to listen to while reading this than anything Regina Spektor
