We just finished our first shoot with Nexus for Nintendo and the nice chaps at Leo Burnett Chicago. The spots will be done in two week time so keep an eye on our website.
Cowboys on set… (picture by James Allen from Time Based Arts)
Archive Page 2
Who: Minivegas
Founders: Luc Schurgers and Dan Lewis
Innovation in: Directing
Why you need to know about them: The modern director is tech savvy, DIY and media agnostic, as au fait with programming, apps, animation and post-production as live action, and the creative possibilities that come with that are boundless.
“Whether you’re directing a traditional live-action spot, or a rich media project, I don’t really see a difference,” says 30-year-old London-based director Luc Schurgers [pictured], who with Dan Lewis makes up Nexus- and Green Dot-repped Minivegas. “We can do pretty much everything. We do our own programming, 3D and compositing.”
A cursory glance through current projects from Minivegas, (which formed as a collective in 2005 but became a duo in August 2009), backs that breadth of creative scope. Schurgers recently shot a live-action comedy spot for Snack-A-Jack, and a CG bonanza for the Star Wars Clone Wars console game. Perfect for time-starved travelers, Happy Granny is an iPhone app that sends a real postcard of photos taken on the iPhone. In conjunction they’ve also created a hilarious, fully-animated viral and website.
In terms of matching music to visuals, however, they’re really pushing the envelope. The pair are working on a real-time, audio-reactive projection system that visualizes music for a live performance pitting labels Warp and Ninja Tune against each other. As well as running a physical gallery and creating installations, their experimental, virtual gallery manifests music as fantastic 3D sculptures of sound, while gesture-recognition technology allows users to interact with the music and move around the space.
“[Directing is] a feeling communicated, whether that’s something you do via sound analysis or live-action photography. The ideal situation is to mix projects: programming, then live action for the next one, then 3D. It keeps you on your toes,” says Schurgers. EW
www.nexusproductions.com
www.greendotfilms.com
read the full article below.
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On 5th and 6th of March, an outstanding electronic music event took place at the Roundhouse in London, UK. Artists from all around the world were invited and Minivegas and Quayola were asked to do visuals. Sonar somehow managed to convince the enigmatic North American MC DOOM to headline the first day, which turned out to be his first appearance on European grounds ever. For saturday, French techno DJ Laurent Garnier took the main slot.
Beside a jaw-dropping live AV-show from Ryoichi Kurokawa on friday and a in no way inferior laser show by Edwin Van Der Heide on saturday, Minivegas provided live visuals for Matthew Herbert, John Talabot or Sonar’s “Special Surprise Act” 2 Many DJs.
We love the paintings by Philip Jones. The artist showed recently at VEGAS Gallery at a group exhibition curated by Anny Baranova.
‘It has become hard not to notice how worlds of Art and Fashion are so intertwined. Nietzsche wisely noticed that all life came down to arguments about taste. Susan Sontag provided us a definition on camp and its predilection to artifice and love for vulgarity. When speaking of fashion connotations in art mixed with references to sexuality, especially in figurative paintings, Philip Jones is the perfect example to elaborate on.
The work of Philip Jones fuses eccentric characteristics, dandyism, mythological and almost fairy tale-like symbolism. In series of works such as ‘Dandies’, he brings the viewer back into the epoch of Oscar Wilde a time when aesthetics, effeminacy and sexuality swirled around in a rather undefined cloud, distinctly sexually suspect, but never really daring to speak its name. Such extravagant mixes of symbols, hints of kitsch and ostentation echo works by Jeff Koons who uses a playful, toy-like and rather ironic approach in his art pieces. Bright and rich colors provide another dimension to the paintings, allowing the audience to indulge in its beauty. Whether we are looking at an object of sexual desire or a mythological character, we’re not entirely sure.
In his works Philip Jones brings us into the fairy tale of pure beauty and esthetic pleasure where each element of the painting turns the spectator into a child curious to find out the plot of the magic story. And Philip Jones knows how to do so in a very fashionable manner.’ text by Anny Baranova, excerpt from ‘Baranova’s Journal’
In April, VEGAS gallery will show brand new sculptures by the fabulous Dutch artist-duo Heringa/Van Kalsbeek
