[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 our calls
(X)
Directed Sheepskin's voice-over. More here, less there
(X)
Built a visual rule: illustration as reality, photography as interpretation
(X)
Animated the entire film, shot by shot
(X)
Made something that connected with people1
All photo credits to William Sheepskin.
001. CONTEXT
I emailed a photographer I liked. We talked for two hours. I made a video about it. The result is a love letter to photography, disguised as a manual.
002. INCITING INCIDENT
A common criticism photographers face is that they simply capture what was already there. "A painter creates from nothing, but a photographer documents something that already existed".
Sheepskin's photographic process proves the opposite.
003. EDITING THE VOICE
The script was reverse engineered from two hours of interviews with Sheepskin. Then shaped, line by line, across many versions.
The script was then turned into a shotlist.
004. REVERSING THE FRAMING
I approached the video with one rule:
If the world containing the photography is illustrated, it must act like the real world, captured in real time.
- 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 things with weight, not files.
005. 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 for me that's the highest compliment.
