Bon Duke - Fashion Photographer

- Hello and welcome to the
i3 lecture series hosted by the Masters in Digital
Photography program here at the School of Visual Arts. We are thrilled to welcome
film director and photographer Bon Duke as tonight's guest speaker. Bon is a native New Yorker
and a two time graduate of SVA with a BFA in photography, and a masters in fashion photography. He works as a director and is known for his bold photographic
style, sense of humor, and a keen eye for fashion.

His wide array of creative projects includes creative direction
and strategy development in design, fashion, film, and photography. He is a co-founder of the New
York Fashion Film Festival, partner at Anti/Anti Studio and
is also here faculty at SVA. Bon has shot campaigns
and directed films for Adidas, Frebal, Guhring, Zac
Posen, Chloe, Three Point One, Phillip Lim, AllSaints, Sax. This is a long list.

Carpazio, Jordan, and Public School. His editorial clients include
W Magazine, Paper Magazine, and the New York Times Magazine. So please help me in welcoming
Bon with a warm welcome. (Applause) - How's it going? Can you hear me? Good? So the way I'm gonna do this today is, I'm gonna start from
you know how I started and as we go just go through my work and kind of where I am now currently.

So as Katrin mentioned,
born in raised in New York, and you know entering photography actually I was a painter initially. Doing color theory really you know tedious you know painting. And I discovered photography cause it's much faster more satisfying. And you know I was
like, I should try this, took a few courses and I was
like I really want to do this.

I applied to a few
schools, actually only two. One was FIT, the other
was School of Visual Arts. FIT rejected me, which
is a good thing actually. And you know entering SVA
kind of, it let me into this new world of what I could do.

So my first slide is actually
one thing that was given to me from the chair of the
undergrads Steven Fairly, which is John Cage's
ten rules of art school. And you know initially I
read it and I was like, kind of shrugged it off
but I kept, I kinda use it almost as my guide
throughout almost my entire life even so today in the sense of working in the professional field to just
how I made my work in school. And all I could do was
you know in my head, I am in the safety net, I'm
gonna do as much as I can so. Figure out what I want to
do in photography you know.

And in school I actually,
no one told me I could do one internship, I was just like I'm gonna do five internships,
photo editing, magazine, like whatever it was I wanted to like know the ins and outs of photography. Just to like you know put
my hands in everything. See what I loved and what I didn't love. And through that I kind of,
I learned, I failed a lot.

Like that's the one thing
I'm gonna say over and over is making mistakes and
failing over and over, I was so scared of it, so scared of it, but in the end if you do fail your gonna learn how to take the next
step to make it better or actually make it successful. So as I continued, whether
it be photo editing to whatever, whatever it
was I really starting honing in on my voice in my, my work, which you'll see throughout
this, this whole presentation. And what I did throughout my school year was I started assisting. Now that was one thing that
was a big influence on me because of the fact that I
worked with photographers I hated, and photographers I loved.

Seeing how they work, their work ethic. And I always told myself
either I'm gonna take it or leave it, I'm gonna do
this when I start working. And it was crazy cause
there was things like I would do laundry sometimes and just like what am I doing like
they're, they're like. Assisting jobs you're like
fifth assistant you have to do the, just the worst
things but, you know I was like, I'm never gonna make anyone
do this if there on my team.

You know so years of
assisting I was assisting a musician photographer,
he was doing album covers. And I was like oh I want to do music. I want to album covers,
oh that's like my dream that's what I want to do, portraiture. And as I started assisting
more and more into doing that, I started hating it more and
it was more for the fact of, I think it was just the
music industry itself is such a machine that
it was like it drained me and I had to take a step away.

So in that sense I kind of, in school, I you know I figured out
what do I actually love? Well I love portraiture, I
love people, I love characters that are either, you
know whether they be real or whatever I imagine it to be you know. And I was perceiving them through my eyes when I was taking their portrait. And your probably wondering, oh how did he end up in fashion? Well actually I continued
to do my portraiture I was actually doing still life
in all my personal projects until my senior year at
SVA, and I had a show. Something really, like a
whole installation video to sculpture with like my
photos, my portraiture.

And I actually got a call from the CFDA, which is the Council Fashion something, it's like some fashion
association it's like huge. Designer, yeah you got me thank you. And they were like, we want you to shoot for Proenza Schouler which is
a very high end fashion line, and my response was do you have money? Cause I was just, I graduated
when the crash happened. And even at my commencement speech, the speaker whoever it was
was just like, hey good luck.

So, at that point I was just like oh well I need to make
money, I need to like really you know, you know survive so, at that point I said yes I'll do it. And this is where fashion
was really introduced to me. I was, did this job, I saw how fun it was. It became my vehicle in
a sense of for my voice.

I could use fashion to really
tell what I wanted to tell. And on top of that get paid, I was just like well this is great and, that's how I kinda kept going
things starting coming in with work fashion related and I didn't, at that time I was still approaching it still with my portraiture
kind of perspective. You know seeing the clothes
as almost secondary you know. And at that time doing
music went out the window.

I was just like forget this,
music labels don't have money, whatever it's not, it's not as enjoyable because music labels
make it hard you know. You do meet great characters
but I took a step away from it. So entering fashion you
know it forced me to kind of go into an audience
that was very different from what I was used to,
whether it be you know I was doing assisting photographers in celebrity portraiture through music. Fashion it was a collaborative process something that was totally amazing for me.

And that's one thing actually at SVA. In my senior year again that
I learned was collaboration. I realized that I'm just
there's different departments. There's the graphic design department.

There's the film department. Why am I not going over
there and reaching out? In my senior year actually, this is where I actually met Katrin, I decided to do yearbook,
and I was just like why not? I had like some time
I might as well do it. But I met I think about
20 graphic designers, which are still all my friends today. I cannot stress how much collaboration is so it's like important to,
to me and it should be to you because all my friends
that were art directors or you know the designers at school are now creative directors art directors at add agencies, magazines,
and we still work together.

And fashion also introduced
that to me as well because you know there's
a team that you have to create an image designs,
hair, make up, whatever it is it's a whole effort together
from B, point A to B. So I had to learn that
collaboration process where I was so involved in just, I wanna take my portrait
be done with it, you know. Tell my story but now there's a new force of energy when everyone had
a kind of influence on it, and that was really important to me. And I, I cannot stress
enough how important that is.

You know getting feedback from
your friends, bad or good. And you know I continued on. And I made again so many
mistakes and failures. It's nothing to be embarrassed about.

You know I, you keep
moving on and you learn. So. You know as we continued with you know, when I say we I always
reference my team or whoever I'm collaboration with cause
it's just not me you know. I started getting more editorial.

I started getting jobs through fashion. Meeting amazing characters
whether the models or you know people that I
like we, we did a fashion, they call it fashion
portraiture which is like a portrait but you still style it. So it was kind of coming back full circle where it was my portraiture
in a fashion sense. So, here's one thing for work, and this is why I say
collaboration is so important is, I have not done a promo in nine years.

I haven't seen an Email out,
I haven't sent a mailer out. And you know that's
because it was almost like I was planting seeds with
everyone I've collaborated with. And if you make great work
and you believe in it, people will always come
back to you you know. Do what am I saying not
send promos out, no.

I'm, it just the
collaboration really kinda, kinda flourishes some things may not grow, some things will grow, but you never know. It doesn't hurt to just try
it and collaborate it may not work but it, it sometimes
it becomes something great. I still work with one of my
make up artists from like seven years ago and it's like she's,
she's like one of the best. Another thing is I, I've
learned was not to be so shy.

I was always so shy to talk, and I didn't know how to communicate. And that's one thing that I, almost like not practiced but like, the more confident you are
it shows through your work. The more confident you are in your work, it's easier to communicate
with others what you want and also even how you present yourself. And that's something today I
still kind of struggle with but like it's when your really confident it helps you communicate
and almost know your value.

This leads me to value cause
again as a photographer it could be, could be
very hard for you as what, what's my value, how do I make money? There is a point where
once you know, you know. And you can start saying no to these jobs that are just not for you, you know. And that's one thing I
learned it took me a while to understand my own value
and integrity you know. Before I was just saying
yes to everything, and I was just like wait a minute.

What, does it actually say
what I want to say or does, do I want to actually be
represented by this work. Let's see. I actually, so in school I went
for the MPS fashion program. At this point I was working and I was like why am I going back to
school I'm working already? But the reason for me
going back to school was there was a transition
in terms of my work.

I was getting bored of it,
that's like my biggest fear. Kind of just getting bored of fashion, and you get to kind of
find what I loved again. So in this course I kind
of did whatever I wanted. I actually missed a lot of classes, which got me in a lot of trouble.

I missed 27 classes, I mean
this is a different program. - [Katrin] You can try
a different program. - But out of it all I, I
really kind of discovered what I love again which
was, which will lead to the video work that I have created at the end of this presentation. But I also kind of with
finding what I loved about my portfolio I finally, I, sorry they're friends.

I finally my portfolio
was all over the place, and I was just like I need to edit down and to figure out who I am so, I'm gonna kind of go into detail with some of my work that I, that I have here. So, there's one thing
that I loved which was shape and form which
fashion allowed me to do. And also portraiture I
really loved portraiture. But on top of that the
new discovery through it was motion groups, I loved
working with dancers.

So I kind of wanted to combine everything, shape, form, portraiture
and like movement. Colors, like colors are
super important to me. And through it I kind of
started building up my work and I still am building
up my work right now. I haven't had a website in five years, and that's because I, I
can't edit my own work.

It's been, it's been a, a hassle. But, through it all the work I was making only 10% of it I actually really loved. And I would say 90% failed
for me, but that exercise of continually shooting
was super important. It helped me kind of again rediscover what I want to do from fashion.

Also a lot of the
struggle was transitioning from film to digital as
a lot of at that time you know digital becoming huge and I didn't know how to do
digital correctly in a sense. Cause I'm talking about
like SLR, from shooting from medium format to SLR
it was, it was kinda hard. But, this was a time where I would go from trying to figure that
out, and it was struggle. Because it was almost two
different languages for me.

So throughout my work, it's
predominantly digital now. And that's the one thing
that I think I'm really happy about is actually learning the precedence of color darkening, understanding basic color theory you know, I
think that's lost sometimes in this digital world in
a sense, which is fine. But you know that's, it's,
I could never always get the colors that I want in
digital until I finally, you know learned over time. So this was a series for Paper Mag, and it was a story
based on kind of ravers, that was the theme of it.

This is also for Paper Mag,
this is a collaboration with milk make up, which
actually isn't out yet. This is also for Paper
for Nar, this is kind of, is a story about real women
nude with nothing, nothing retouched, well it is
retouched but they wanted real women that weren't
models for this feature. So whenever I shoot
portraiture it's always super important for me to know the person, you know talk to them, find this characteristic about
them that I want to capture. You know I just don't
randomly want to shoot them.

They really have to you
know be someone that I really want to capture. And that's something from my early work that I've always done,
finding these people. And I kind of try to trans, like transform that onto models as well you know but, for me I always kind of look
for that one portraiture even in a fashion story. This is for W.

This is unfortunately a live, this came out last week. This is in Vigmenta. It's digital, and I found one of my old contact sheets, and shocked it in. But it's funny how film is almost kind of very trendy right now you know when it's actually, kind of, ode to been great.

As I go through this I want to talk about a new thing that happened to me which was the invention of the
digital SLR and video. This was important to
me because of the fact that it added another dimension. It added another way of telling the story. I could actually afford to do this video through digital SLR it was approachable.

Everyone could do it. And at that time I was just like whoa, I need to learn how to do some video here, if I have it in my hands. High quality video too. And from that point I
realized it was another way for me to kind of tell a story.

Which we'll get to my
first film that I ever did, which no one has ever seen I don't think, which is gonna be interesting. This was, the story was, story for VFILES, and very youthful group
basically we had like 40 people in the studio and it was just
basically a party all day. There's something about
groups that I love. Almost like a, a tribe
or a gang that kind of, I kind of characterize onto my story.

I was using a mixture of friends, models. But I never wanna actually
say models are friends. I almost wanna just have
them as a character. That's the most important for me.

This is for New York Times. This is a story that came out last month, and it was a, a story on septum rings. Very subtle but you'll see them. So we found about six people, real people that had septums and kinda
did a whole story on that.

Coming around back to
my portraiture again. Like I always will have, I
will always do portraiture. If someone asks me
portraiture or fashion story, I think I would choose to go
with portraiture you know. In the end it's not any,
they're not different but for me the portraiture
tells, says a lot more for me.

We have, I have a few portraiture
commissions coming up. This is Kendall Jenner she's actually extremely sweet to work with. This is for W. Little Yachty, he's a, he's
a very young rap artist that's like really blowing up right now.

And this is where, gonna
bring me into my next stage which is about social media, and how that's now changing
a lot of things for me as a photographer and it's a new platform that you know you can really
push your work out on. And it's relevant, kind of important to do and kind of look at what's happening. So like the Chung Four or TIMEOUT. Sorry if I'm going too fast I'm trying to get to the video which
is what I'm doing currently.

This was an ad for Aritzia,
which we did stills and video. There's one thing that is
super, super important now is actually being able to do stills and video at the same time. Now the challenge here is
budget, time, you know. That's one thing that everyone's
facing with right now.

This client or whoever it
is wants a video and photos on the same day, how
do you, how, you know. It's hard but it's always doable you know. I think there is, it's what people want
clients, clients want. It's another asset that
you know everyone will want for social media, for online, for print.

You know they all kind of relate, and that's one thing that
I have been constantly struggling with where a
client wants video and stills. So we will see the
video after I get to it. So this is the concept
was we had New York City Ballet dancers come in,
lot of shape and form. Kind of showing textures and
kind of this new collection that they made which is active wear as using the New York City Ballet dancers.

This is for W. This is a personal project I did based on, just masks and the idea of how you know masks are used as a form of intimidation. And it's interesting how sports use masks to kind of cover their face for protection but also intimidation
depending on what it is. So what we did with, me
and the make up artist we conceptualized and bought
actually different sorts of head protection and we
kind of glamorized them in a sense to really use them
as a piece for, for the shoot.

It was a beauty shoot but
wanted to really emphasize on this, this idea of
the mask and protection. The beauty work. This is for Paper. This was based on beauty
treatments around the world.

This was for New York Times
like if you notice I love, again back to dancers I will
always work with dancers cause they understand
their bodies so well. New York City Ballet again. This is Twyla Tharp
legendary choreographer and this was the most perfect
thing I could ever ask for for a job which was one of
my favorite choreographers in her company, in her
element, taking a portrait with movement of her company around her. I think, when I look at this image it's, it's very it's, this represents
me very well you know.

And to just to, to be
able to work with her. She was phenomenal. This was for AllSaints, this
was a musicians portrait here that we did in New York,
local New York City musician. Alright we're getting to the video.

Okay. So. Get the DSLR and I'm like
I need to make some video. This video is my first video I ever did, but it means a lot because
it triggered something in my head and I was like
I need to keep trying, working on this, I need to
actually get an internship again and learn about video production.

Cause I'm the kind of
person that wants to know and really get my hands on into things. So, this is a still life video that I did.  You know that it would be untrue  You know that I would be a liar  If I was to say to you  Girl we couldn't get much higher  Come on baby light my fire  Come on baby light my fire  Try to set the night on fire  The times you had to  Super simple but the idea
of having something move and just the burning of the cigarette pack for me said a lot I was like oh my God, I can say so much like
with this moving motion. And another thing was
the importance of music.

You know it's like so literal
with you know that song but I just like, I
realized that that element also pushed this kind of
drive in motion you know. I started realizing, wow
I love Tarantino films, I love Guy Ritchie films,
and the thing I love about them is the music
when there's like a scene that you're listening to and it's like the music just drives it home. So that was my first video, and now I'm gonna show you my reel of just my work in general and. You know whenever I do a
piece I always want to have this energy that kind of is
emitted when you watch it, get's you excited and also want, I want where you want to be involved in a sense.

So this is my reel, should
be a minute and a half.  Roof is falling let me
love me falling I just know  Roof is falling let me
love me falling I just know  Roof is falling let me
love me falling I just know  Roof is falling let me love me  Gold up in my gold up in my teeth  Gold up gold up in my teeth  Don't care what you say to
me I'ma bite your feelings out  Gold up in my teeth  I missed you in the basement  Gold up in my teeth  But your brother was a
good substitute for you  And if you love me love
me but you never let me go  When the roof was on
fire you never let me know  Say you're sorry honey
but you never really show  And I could leave the party
without ever letting you know  Without ever letting you know  Walk past her oh slow walk faster  Without ever letting you know  Walk past her oh too slow walk faster  Without ever letting you know  Walk past her oh too slow walk faster  Without ever letting you know  Walk past her oh too slow  Without ever letting you know  Gold up in my teeth  Okay so, that's some like
work that I've done recently. Sort of outdated there's
more that I need to add. But from that first video
I instantly was like I need to do this, I
need to jump into this.

I started researching, I
was looking at websites like Showstudio, I was like whoa
fashion film what this is, amazing this is, it blew my mind. The problem is I went to photo school and I was like wow, shit I need to, I need to learn basically everything. And the minute I graduated
it was such a gamble. I was like working random
jobs assisting still, but I took on an internship.

I took on an internship that paid nothing. It was a film production
company that did fashion films. It was the best choice I ever made. Production and film for me was, it's totally different from photo.

But the creative processing
was so beautiful. And again collaboration,
the collaboration on film was a thousand times more
important than photo. Because every piece matters. And that's when I started
learning about file production and getting my hands into
like everything film.

And I finally then wrote
one of my first films. It was one, a written film that I did which was based off of Teddy Boys. And I was like I have this SLR, I'm gonna try and get a team together. Done this video with my team
that was super important to me.

- [Voiceover] So the foreign mockling is kind of a Teddy Boy. He wears sick fashion, speedy socks, skin tight drawing pants, and stiff shirt collars. Well he wears a waist coat, but he don't wear the
double breasted coat. He wears the one button
coat finger-tipped right.

And he has one handkerchief
in the top of his coat. And he has a duffle coat,
it took kind of a bit slashed so that doesn't matter. (Upbeat music)  Bow out  Let's punk  Bow out  I dare  Bow out  Lets punk  Bow out  I dare  Bow out  Lets punk  Bow out  I dare  Bow out  Lets punk  Bow out  I dare  Oh  And he's got, kind of cut
his hair cat black hair. And he looks like the
Einstein in the front and Dare at the back.

And every night he wears a chief cat, and he looks marvelous. Well he's the boy of my dreams, and if only I could marry him, well I'll be the luckiest
girl in the world. - So realized how much more
I could tell in the story when I wrote it and I just kept going. And going, and going.

So. I started running with videos and how I could use it
with fashion clients, and it was becoming so big at this time. And it was actually a
door for me to kind of really break in where top
fashion photographers were. They, they had the market in stills, but the film I kind of, it
was like well here's my chance to kind of really carve my own path.

The film you're watching
right now is a ballet piece that I did for NOWNESS, and it's with a collaboration with Chloe. And from that point on I
got so much work from people were reaching out for fashion films. But the problem at the time
was they didn't understand the budget that we
require for fashion films. And I just kept going with it.

And you know dancers were,
they were easy to work with. They really show the clothing in such a beautiful way, with emotion. And from that point on I
kept working with dancers live and still you'll see, as my work, as we go through you'll see
I always go back to dancers. Anyway it's the struggle between shooting stills and videos, which
is more complicated.

But things are changing
and budgets are actually properly getting going to, toward video. I cannot stress enough
how important video is to just do as a photographer,
it's such an important asset. Almost expected you know with our devices so easily used for recording. People want it, clients want it.

It's, it's unavoidable to kind
of you know, it doesn't hurt to try really and have small
assets that are motion. Which leads me to social media. I shrugged off Instagram, I
was like I don't need this. I don't care about it,
it doesn't matter to me.

Who, who cares about followers? Who cares about whatever it is? I was, this is where I was
like common sense, I was 26. And I was just like, ahhh,
I feel like I'm complaining about new technological
social wave of things. Am I getting older? I was but, the thing is you
have to really, not adapt, but you have to kind of
evolve just a little. Don't lose yourself in it
but still evolve with it, and Instagram at the time
I was just doing like stupid posting social whatever it was.

And I wasn't curating
it, but I realize today that it's such an
important thing to curate. It's almost like my
portfolio it's almost as if I'm at a gallery what
image is going to be next? What, what is my layout, what is you know it's almost the same thing
as when I was working with art directors and
we were laying magazines, almost the same thing
but in a digital forum. Everyone is using it. And at the same time video
on Instagram was being put up and I was just like hang on
this is what I'm about to do and now I can put it up? That's where things
started shifting for me and really paying
attention to social media.

So, these upcoming things that I've shot were based online as an asset, but it gets more views
on social media itself. Because it's just easier
to kind of put up there and people will watch it. So whenever I go in, I shoot
this film, I do a whole video. But then from that point
on the video I break down into social media assets, content.

Clients love it, just
say assets and content. They like love it to them
it's like morbid reality you're just rewording everything and you get more, more money really. So this is the New York Times,
you saw this film earlier. Which I broke down stills and then from that prospect we did a, a take of the choreograph,
choreography we did on video.

We're going to the next piece which I'm actually gonna try to start again. I got this job because I knew
the client from social media. Like we followed each other we, we followed each others
work which is crazy. Cause I'm just like wait a minute.

I didn't send my portfolio, I
didn't send anything to you. We're just friends on,
on Instagram and we, we like each others work
and I got this job for it. So this is for Public
School and Oliver Peoples.  Oh la la la  Oh la la la  Oh la la la  I  Won't  Compromise  I  Won't  Live a life  On my knees  You  Think  I am nothing  I am nothing  You've  Got  Something coming  Something coming  Because  Oh la la la  I hear God's whisper  Oh la la la  Calling my name  Oh la la la  It's in the wind  Oh la la la  I am the savior  Oh la la la  Sing it again  Savior  Savior  Oh la la la  So from that point on I
actually still work with them, and actually got another job which you'll see after this video.

Actually I'm gonna, I'm
gonna continue actually. I feel like. So, this is the next
video I did with them. And this is one of my latest pieces, which is with Jordan at Public School, the same client for all of the pieces.

(Dribbling) This is inspired by the Nike commercial with dribbling from the 90's
which you guys remember. (Dribbling) (hip hop music) So, social media is really powerful. Secondly, another thing is, is I'm gonna go back to collaboration
I said that over and over. It's like I have one of the
best producers in house, she's here she's like
without like if you have anyone that you collaborate with, like you know you'll know if
they're gonna you're gonna like really work well with them.

And without her it be
really impossible to really put all this film stuff together. And also my cinematographer,
a cinematographer is super important to do video. If you be able to kind of
direct, your cinematographer is your right hand
person to kind of really you know project what you want to show. Without them it'd be
impossible to do any of this.

I'm gonna skip cause
I feel like, like yep. This is for Caapezio, full
circle again with Dan. This is with Maddie Ziegler. This came out two months ago.

(Orchestral music) (rock beat with deep base) So that was my recent work. I'm gonna wrap it up in terms
of the latest thing that is has opened a new door for
me, which I think everyone should really just look
into and consider which is. This is me in virtual reality,
I'm experimenting with it. It's another layer, it's
like a fifth dimension now.

It's like six, it's like insane. It's now changing how I tell a story. Social media, virtual
reality, it's a new platform a new place where your work,
my work, whatever it is. It's really you know it's
become so big these past few months that it's gonna
shift how we tell stories.

That being said, you know one thing I heard at a conference by, anyway the idea was you know you know medium is a message about a commercial. Right now it's user as a message for me, and he said that and it
made so much sense because it is based on these users or people sharing work with each
other or making work, collaboration or whatever it is, and that's something to be
said with this digital age, with social media and virtual reality. So hopefully you'll see some
of my work in virtual reality. I don't know it might suck but, it's something to pay attention to.

And just to play around with if you can. (Applause) - [Voiceover] So all of
your like, your photos and your videos they all
seem like so thoughtful and they all have a story. When you're working with
clients do they usually have a story that you have to tell? Or do you come with them,
or do you come to them with a story or like what
kind of collaboration is that? - So it really depends. So the client, okay here's the thing, sometimes when the
client has so much money, and they are like we want
this you're like okay.

I will do it you know. But majority of the times there
is a base, there is a base guideline that they will give you. Or a theme or like idea, they're like oh we want to do something with suits and movement, run with it. So a lot of it I actually put together and make a treatment for.

And I really you know bring things into fruition
and detail when I, whenever I work with these clients. So they may have a general
idea of what they want. But then I build out more in detail with when I work with them, whether
it be stills or, or video. It's always good to have,
I guess whenever you pitch the client always make it really concise and clear in your mood work or
whatever you present to them.

If that makes sense. - [Voiceover] So you said
with your still photography and your still work portraiture was the biggest thing even with fashion. Do you find that still
when you do video or has it moved closer to movement
when you've moved to video? Or is there something more
important than those two? - That's, that's a good question. I think when I think of
my portraiture translating into video it's almost me
writing up a character.

You know that's my
portrait of them you know. Movement helps, it's like a,
movement is more of the visual energy that I want to push that
this character that I wrote is kind of you know having
you know the movement's more like, it's a feeling
where the character is the portrait of them
that I write it for. Does that make sense? - [Voiceover] Hello, when
you're contracted to do a a video project do you do the
post production work yourself or do you contract that
out to a post house? Or what's the process like
for a video based project. - It depends, I'm usually like again like I love me knowing everything.

I even like taught myself
how to do video editing. And I can do it to a certain extent. And if I do it in house
I do keep that money. Why not? But if it's a really big
job I will source it out and a video editor you
just don't want to give it to any video editor you
want to like really find the person that understands your story.

You know that they, you sit down with them and you explain even before you shoot you explain your treatment
your, your story to them so they're in that mindset. It's almost like finding a good retoucher that understands how you want
it to be retouched you know. So whenever, if you ever do source it out, find someone that kind of can
help you polish it off in, in a way that you want cause
some editors they just, they see things differently you know, so. - [Voiceover] Yeah, in fact
I have one more question.

I mean what is the time frame usually for let's say for the last
video that you showed, it's like the pre-production,
the production, and the post. What's the time frame in
terms of I guess the whole, the whole project the completion of a project from beginning to end? - Sometimes, okay so the
last video that was just seven months, seven months
of like pre-production to concepting to shooting
and post production. That was because of the bigger client. Sometimes I've done videos in two days.

She knows, this one,
Roxanne, she's my producer. There's one video I didn't show you which was this Adidas, this Adidas one. We produced in, she
produced it in two days. And sometimes you know that's
when you have great team.

Here's the thing there's,
there's a saying which is you can only choose two
fast, cheap, or good. You can only choose two, so
I would always choose time. If I could get more time the better. Gives you more preparation, so.

Does that make sense? - [Voiceover] Yes, thank you. - [Voiceover] Your lighting
is really beautiful, I'm thinking it's all
really beautiful but, the still photography
it seems like you have a large bag of tricks could you talk about your lighting a bit. - Sure, so I assisted,
which I learned a lot of lighting from you know assisting like, I'm actually a very simple
person in terms of lighting. I like to light, on second
thought, I like to light big.

In a sense where almost
recreating a big source whether it be through
like a 12 by 12 shooting you know strobe through
it and like softening it, and then I cut down, I never add light unless I really need to
but I make a big source. And then I almost carve
out the light after. So I try to keep it really simple. Sometimes I have one light, maybe two.

So bigger then cut it down. - [Voiceover] Hi you,
your Public Schools piece with the basketball and
this piece Carpezio, the choreography was really important but the music was actually more important. Did you use the, when you,
when you shot the video in each one were you
shooting without sound, one? And two did you use the
music, the soundtrack that you were, that's in the piece to help you direct a, the choreographer? - So, so he's asking about
during the choreography he, he states the choreography is
less important than the music is that correct, is that what you said? - [Voiceover] Did replaying
the music help you a lot through the shooting of the film? - Ah, so, okay. We actually I always try to
come with the music beforehand no matter what, it sets the tone.

You know it's movement you
can really feel it when you, when you have the music already made. A lot of the music is composed. So what I do is I actually try to find similar tracks that I would really want composed like to really kind of emit this energy when the people preform. So on set we, the music is very important, very very important cause it
kind of cause the driving force I can't you know on
this, this Carpezio job we didn't play anything classical at all.

We played something very
similar and very heavy, to really get the girls
to feel it you know. And it also, it also helps
the set edit too you know cause that edit will dictate that, the flow of the piece you know. - [Voiceover] Looking at your progression from stills through
video now into 3D world, where do you think you're
gonna find yourself in 10? Are you gonna further
to dramatic directing? Are you gonna stay in the world
of virtual reality and 3D? Or you gonna do a mixture? - I think we can do a
mixture but I'm actually now considering, considering
writing my first feature film. I really want to try.

I think there's a labor of
love when I, when I write it. I might take time to finish it but, this is all great and all
but like I wanna really, I think I wanna try
feature films you know. That's my next step. Virtual reality is like
an experiment you know.

I just like different tools
for like telling story telling. - [Katrin] Well on that
note on I hope when you have the world premier you'll have it here at SVA at the theater. I want to thank you,
it's been fascinating. - Thank you so much
- [Katrin] And appreciate it a great deal, thank you.

(Applause).