As a creator, how do you overcome “What if?”
Recently I was interviewed about being a director by the Superr app team where they asked me about my work. I told them this:
I love how the Superr team captured my crazy while making it seem super artistic!
The hardest part about being a photographer is not necessarily the photography itself, but more the freelance aspect of it. When you have nothing to do, being able to just go “breath”, I don’t have a job today and that’s OK. That was the biggest hurdle, but once I got over that, I started getting more jobs.
Full article here: http://blog.superr.io/2017/11/09/freezing-movements-time-photographer-tristan-pope-dancers-best-friend/
I then ran across this short film:
First of all I fucking loved this. This is EXACTLY what a creator feels when you are going from concept to reality. And when you finally let into the feelings of “what if” “failure” and other such things is when your art comes out as pure as it can possibly be. Bravo sir. Well done.
This is what it feels like to be a creator. You are constantly fighting your own ambitions, ideas, sleepless nights of jotting down notes, and when it is all said and done and you press publish or submit to that festival or whatever you release your media to, you sit back, and probably sleep for a few days straight.
It is amazing how fast all the work you put into a project can be consumed these days, but after you rest, you wake up everyday and do at least one thing you love all over again!
New York Women in Film and Television Mobile Filmmaking Panel
Speaking on the panel at the @nywift New York Women in Film and Television mobile filmmaking panel.
Was an honor to speak here. Thank you so much for having me. See all my work here: Http://tristanpope.com
Romance in NYC mentioned in the video now available on iTunes:
http://alttabme.site.nfoservers.com/portfolio/romanceinnyc
Behind the Scenes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4y_dlV71M-w
“Dancers of NYC” hits Wired.com “Slo-Motion is changing the dance world”
Dancers of NYC has been featured at Wired.com
Pope, meanwhile, is an avid user of slo-mo. He exclusively used the iPhone 6’s 240 fps slo-mo in a short film called Dancers of New York, which has been selected as a contestant in the International Mobil Film Festival. In the video, you see daring leaps, high kicks, and acrobatics slowed down such that you can watch legs stretch and muscles contract with impressive detail. It’s mesmerizing. Pope embarked on the project mere hours after buying the latest iPhone last fall, shooting the first dancer for Dancers of New York, Anna Pinault. The results were instantly impressive.
And also Cross Promoted on CAPEZIO
Slo-Mo Video has become dancer’s best friend. Tristan Pope Photographyshot this entire short film, “Dancers of New York” in Slo-Mo. We think it’s absolutely amazing!
Featured on MobileMovieMaking
Celebrated dance/fashion photographer Tristan Pope illustrates this creative option beautifully by transporting dance sequences out of the concert hall and into more than a dozen locations in New York City—in less than two minutes. Tristan’s ingenuity inspires us to look at dance in a new way.
The Slow Motion feature of the iPhone has always been a feature I thought was an extremely useful tool. I own many prosumer cameras but to achieve the slow motion you see in the films I have been creating I would need to rent or buy extremely expensive equipment. With the combination of ease of use, affordability, and creativity you can turn your iPhone into an amazing tool not only for films such as Dancers in NYC:
Or our most recent film “Snowday” which really showcases a single performers skills in a unique and beautiful way.
But an extremely useful tool for the dancer as well.
I know quite a few dancers who have been utilizing the slo-motion during their rehearsals and classes to get a better view of their form, technique, and overall performance for playback. To be able to see your technique and facial expressions can help you get the edge during auditions. Not only that but people are recording their performances to show online more because of the ease of use to get it online and have that extra bit of movie magic finesse.
Since this video, you’ve been hired to capture slo-mo video of dancers for their audition reels. Does this get good reception from companies and choreographers?
As someone who is constantly behind that casting table, a recording of a performance in one thing but a a video that captures the person being put on the chopping block so clearly and as the main focus is a huge benefit not only to the performer but to me when casting, leaving no doubt in my mind that this isn’t movie magic or photoshop-imbued. This is a quote from a new avenue of film I offer clients called In Motion:
As a director I am handed a lot of headshots. I look at them for about 3 seconds and if I think they have the look for the part I immediately search for a reel, I want to see them in motion. In a word imbued with Photoshop, nothing tells me more about someone before I meet them than film! It gives me a quick idea of their expressions, personalities, and capabilities as performers.
Some very talented people don’t have reels for one reason or another, be it cost, inability to make one, or just not having done enough work on film yet.
Those with the reel stand out from the crowd.
The same applies for my dance photography, I want to see the person in motion. A picture can only capture the peak of a move, but not the form, positioning, and technique leading up to it. All of these are extremely important for those trying to get cast in their next performance!
My goal is to give people the opportunity to get an accurate and affordable portrayal of them, in motion, be it a montage of their personalities as actors or their technique as a performer! The idea here is to bypass the need to be in hundreds of performances, waiting for those performances to be released so you can add them to your reel(that you may not be equipped to do) by creating a quick moving image of you, in an extremely timely manner, but with the quality of a leading performance!
The highlighted text is really the crux of it. In the day and age where we can view videos so easily, not having one to show your abilities, talents, etc can only hurt.