[MY LOVE LETTER TO PHOTOGRAPHY]
FROM NOTHING TO A PHOTOGRAPH
CLIENT
Personal Project
YEAR
2023
ROLE
Concept / Script / Design / Motion / Edit / Sound
FORMAT
Youtube / Film
Photographer William Sheepskin talked to me about his process. I romanticised it into a film.
(X)
Reverse-engineered a script from calls
(X)
Directed Sheepskin's voice-over. More here, less there
(X)
Built a visual rule: illustration as reality, photography as authorship
(X)
Animated the entire film, shot by shot
(X)
Made something that moved people1 I'll never meet
All photo credits to William Sheepskin.
001. // FOUNDATION
I emailed a photographer I liked. We talked for two hours. I made
not a profile
or tutorial
but,
[a love letter pretending to be a manual]
002. // INCITING INCIDENT
People tend to think of photography as simply capturing what was already there.
"a photographer doesn't create from nothing"
Sheepskin's whole practice argues against that.
003. // SHAPING THE VOICE
The script was reverse-engineered from two hours of talks with Sheepskin. Then shaped, line by line, across many versions.
Conversation
v1
Final
My ideal camera has the reliability of a brick, because a brick is a brick, and it always works.
"Digital lenses are so clinically brilliant, so sharp."
"Digital lenses are so clinically brilliant, so sharp."
"The fact that the lenses are so clinically brilliant, so sharp..."
"The fact that the lenses are so clinically brilliant, so sharp..."
"Digital lenses are so clinically brilliant, so sharp..."
(notes here)
If you can imitate your own tone, but say “Digital lenses are...”, as opposed to “The fact that the lenses are...” (which is what you said on the zoom call).
No notes
004. // ASSEMBLING THE BLOCKS
The script was turned into a shotlist.
005. // APPLYING ONE RULE
One simple rule:
The illustrated world is forced to behave like [real world captured in real time]
So
- light shifts with time of day
- objects move in and out of frame
- gravity gives photos weight
- photos are framed, folded, pinned, handled
Photos are artifacts asking to be observed.
006. // ARTIFACTS
Things with weight, not files.
007. // FROM NOTHING TO STRANGERS
The film went up on Sheepskin's channel.
20K+ views. 200+ comments. 2.2K likes.
Most of them think Sheepskin made it, and that's the highest compliment.
