Recent “Production Stills” Posts
A new book of the work of Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, entitled Objets Dessins Maquettes is available now (at least in Europe).
We happened to be in the Bouroullec’s Paris studio while the brothers were working with the book’s graphic designers, ericandmarie, and we filmed the meeting, so you might see some of it in the film. And check out ericandmarie’s site for a nice video they produced for the Bouroullecs’ 2004 show at MOCA Los Angeles.
Categories: Design News, Production Stills
A few stills from our filming at Smart Design, New York.
Dan Formosa and Davin Stowell with Smart Design’s Flip Mino video camera
Prototypes of the Flip camera
Bicycle grip meets vegetable peeler… the inspiration for their OXO Good Grips designs
The Not-so-good Grips… dozens of trial designs
Categories: Production Stills
Filming people buying “democratic design” is a tough job, especially on an indie film budget. That’s why Objectified DP Luke Geissbuhler swears by DØLLI, the ingenious DIY camera dolly that we improvised last week at Ikea and gave a suitably nonsensical faux-Swedish name. I mean, c’mon, who comes up with these product names anyway? [Try the Ikea Game and see if you can decipher them.]
Needless to say, our usual “stealth” mode of observational filming went out the window with this rig. And if you think Luke looks goofy using it, you should’ve seen when he was actually standing on it operating the camera while I was pushing the cart. But we ended up getting some surprisingly nice footage out of it. The shoot threatened to veer into Jackass territory when we got all wacky on lingonberry juice and started ramming furniture displays.
Back to the edit suite,
– Gary
Categories: Film News, Production Stills
I’m in Tokyo this week, and had the privilege of spending a day in the busy studio of Japanese industrial designer Naoto Fukasawa. My taxi ride there ended prematurely when the side street we were driving on became so narrow that the driver actually got the cab wedged between the walls on each side of the street. He managed to reverse to a slightly wider area and let me out, and I continued the journey on foot.
Fukasawa is known for his work with companies like Muji, IDEO, NEC, KDDI/AU, Issey Miyake, and his in-house design brand plusminuszero. During the interview we talked about the differences between Japanese and American design, and the different ways each culture relates to objects. We discussed the pros and cons of plastic and other materials. We also talked about his creative inspirations, and the concept of designing “without thought” — how people’s unconscious (and sometimes unintended) uses of objects can inspire new design possibilities. A few examples of this are Fukasawa’s umbrella with an indentation for holding your bag, and his Light with a Dish for catching your keys and change.
I did some vérité filming of the studio at work, with Fukasawa and his staff fluidly switching back and forth between new chair designs and an exhibition design. Afterwards I visited the plusminuszero shop, and did some filming at the huge Muji store in Ginza the next day.
Doing more shooting around Tokyo this week… if it would just stop raining…
Kanpai!
–Gary
Categories: Film News, Production Stills
Most of the interviews for the film have already been shot, but there are a few late additions we’re doing this month. One is BMW’s Chris Bangle. Bangle is based in Munich, but we missed him when we were in Germany a few months back. He was visiting the States this week to attend the Concours d’Elegance in Pebble Beach, so DP Luke Geissbuhler and I headed out to California to meet up with this controversial designer. “A wild-eyed revolutionary destroying one of Europe’s blue-chip luxury brands? The most influential automotive designer of the early 21st century?” asked an article in Motor Trend.
The Concours was a complete circus… there was no parking, it was swarming with people, and it was impossible to find a quiet place to interview Bangle anywhere near the show’s headquarters at the Lodge at Pebble Beach. So Luke and I commandeered a new BMW X6, threw Bangle in, and headed north along the Pacific coast. We found a vacant stretch of land overlooking the ocean, and actually conducted most of the interview inside the car.
Our conversation topics included the evolution of automotive design over the last 50 years, the emotional appeal of the automobile, the differences between European and American design, his work at BMW, and his thinking on user interface, materials, sustainability, and the future of car design (and even of the car itself).
At some point soon we’ll be uploading clips from a number of our interviews for your viewing pleasure.
Back to the studio,
–Gary
Categories: Film News, Production Stills
Italian design manufacturer Magis was kind enough to let us film their injection molding process in Milan last month, using Jasper Morrison’s Air Chair as an example. Maybe it’s just me, but there’s a ballet to the way these machines move, and you can get hypnotized buy the sounds in there. Thanks to everyone at Magis and OMB for letting us invade their factory, and for the excellent pasta.
Speaking of balletic machines and the people who operate them, check out Eva Weber’s excellent short film City of Cranes if you can.
Categories: Production Stills
What’s on Dieter Rams’ reel-to-reel tape player, you ask? Miles Davis, circa 1957, of course! In the late 1950s, jazz was hugely popular in the Frankfurt area, due in part to American Armed Forces radio broadcasts of US jazz groups in Germany. Dieter says that he and his friends were buying jazz records at the time, but their stereo systems were so bad that they weren’t getting to experience the full sound. So this actually pushed them to develop better stereo speakers and audio components at Braun.
Categories: Production Stills
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