Fashion short Crinis • 13 is a one of a kind piece that will create a wave of awe and surprise among people who love both photography and film. Dutch photographer duo Fotofloor, production company Caviar and creative studio Woodwork made it happen.There’s a revolution going on in photography and motion pictures. With ever advancing technological developments we face an ocean of possibilities. The classic photography moves closer against moving image and vice versa. But real overlap is rarely seen in photography, other than moving collages or still images on a screen coming to life.
“Who’s going to fill that gap between photography and film?” was the question Floor Stoop and Mike van der Giessen (Fotofloor) asked themselves repeatedly. “Photographers have cameras that can film professionally”, Stoop says. “Many bloggers work with loops instead of photos. As a photographer with some technical insight you can create your own cinematographs. There’s a whole scene in New York of people, like Barnaby Roper, who make daring interactive blends of film and photography.”

Unearthly beauty
They conceived the idea to take Fotofloor’s photography to the next level, in their own characteristic, artistic way. The fascinating short fashion film Crinis • 13 is inspired by the films of Man Ray and Luis Buñuel and in particular by Fernand Léger’s Ballet Méchanique.
In Crinis • 13 we see a model with a face that appears to be from another world and infinite locks of Pre-Raphaelite-like, white blond hair (crinis is Latin for hair). She moves graciously with an incredible effect. An enchanting kaleidoscope unfolds before your eyes, supported by uplifting electronic beats.
Fotofloor in fact decided to revive the Dada movement on a small scale, an effort that succeeded really well. One might call it a kind of dadaistic DIY-effort. They obviously received some help in this effort. A whole team of specialists assisted Fotofloor in order to make this film happen: production company Caviar, D.O.P. Job Kraaijeveld, a small film crew, as well as hair and make-up talents. Star stylist Ilham Mestour made the blond wig herself and made sure the locks were flowing, bowing and stretching in the most photogenic way.

Snow White in slow motion
But the magic really took off with Marvin Koppejan, creative director at Woodwork. He cut, pasted, juggled, mixed, mirrored and conjured up images with a photographic eye. Graded by Balster van Duijn and carefully watched and guided by the Fotofloor team. The results are bewildering: the model’s image is carved up into a digital chopping block that doubles and turns and squeezes her through a series of kaleidoscopic formations.
“The model moves slowly; the footage is recorded in slow motion, in 120 frames per second instead of the usual 25 fps”, Marvin Koppejan explains, “in order to be able to stretch and accelerate faster in postproduction. In this way, you can make much more possible.”
Fotofloor created even more layers in the form of a theme. “Hair” was initially the subject, gradually added to by a mysterious cocktail of subthemes, motives and symbols. Van der Giessen: “We went back and forth dreaming and associating, and progressively came up with bible figures like Eve (hence the apple), Samson (hence the hair) and mythology figure Lilith.”
Fairy-tale character Snow White also appears briefly. In one scene this is visualized by snowflakes, raging, falling and melting, making the hair look like a furiously sweet snowstorm. Like in silent movies, now and then film texts are superimposed on the images, with words of a poem by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, poet, painter and co-founder of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

Everything’s possible
Pre-Raphaelites meet poetry meet Dada meet Rorschach. But above all: imagination.
Van der Giessen: “We want to push the limits, seek boundaries, combine all sorts of things. We don’t need to be limited to a simple 2D-exhibition. Why not create an installation as well? A lot more things are possible, in art, in media, in… everything.”

 

 

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