“I wrote this film for Tekeshi.”

In my previous post I spoke of the process of listening, seeing, responding then building new pathways and work from that response. In the post I was alluding to the grand challenge of creating innovative new art, mediums and ways of working.  This is ambitious. For me the challenge is to develop art that connects and grows creativity. I’m addressing this through design, art direction, film, writing and teaching. For the sake of describing this concept I’d like to share an example of this process at a purely creative level.  I’m still working on being innovative on the broader canvas I’ve just described.

Back in 2009 I was working on a film called Laundry Warrior. It was released under the name ‘Warriors Way’. The Director Sng moo Lee and cinematographer Woo-hyung Kim aka ‘Whoosh’ both spoke English as a second language. Communication was a challenge.  For a month I produced art and designs for Sng moo. Every day the limited response was the same. “It’s good but wrong”.  That was the end of the conversation.  Listening and seeing was difficult when so little was being given. Over the month from little snippets I was building a picture consciously and to my surprise quite unconsciously. The script gave me a sense of time and place but style was proving difficult to crack.

Over that first month I produced work not for the film but rather to gauge the director. I wanted to see and hear him. I needed too. The best way was through offering him work to respond too. The breakthrough came one day by chance.  Everyone was meeting together. Director, Cinematographer, art director Phil Ivey, Designer Dan Hennah, Set Decorator Ra Vincent, producers and myself.  Sng moo had dropped reference of Anime as well as the revealing thought of an Iggy Pop soundtrack. I was forming a response, not a picture, but a response. Sng moo wanted something cool! He wanted something still and violent at the same time. Without thinking I blurted out mid meeting ‘Like Tekeshi Kitano standing in the doorway at the end of ‘Violent Cop’!’ Every one stopped and just stared at me. God, I thought, who the hell in this room will have watched Violent Cop?’ Perhaps this response was all wrong?  Sng moo just stared at me in surprise. Then he spoke. “I wrote this film for Tekeshi.”

I’d cracked it. Violent cop was an awesome Yakuza film. Violent then still with high contrast light and shadow. Good and evil all contained in the hero character. In the scene I spoke of the light looked like shards of broken glass breaking against the screen. Stunning. Now when I revisited the art it was ‘Good and right’! Even the work from the last month could be re worked to meet with Sng Moo’s vision. I shattered light across the imagery. The painting you see here was the first one I created once I had a response that Sng Moo registered with.

Often in design for film we talk about working from the script. This is only half true. I always go to the script for answers. But the work I make isn’t built from the script as much as it is built from my response to the script. 

This is the process I’m suggesting we need to teach. To be clearly aware of our response and have ways to create work from it that moves us all forward.

Check out my art for the film here at this link. Warrior's Way Art .The film, because of financing and production problems during the recession, never reached Sng Moo’s ambitious script.  Hopefully Sng Moo and his team will get another chance one day. If I were to work with them again I would be all the more aware of my response and capable of building from it.