The Empty Box

A few more images we have in mind for our treatment on...

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 14:10:35 +0800

A few more images we have in mind for our treatment on ‘Atmospheric Skull’.

One more batch of images from Kai that we are using as...

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 09:47:51 +0800

One more batch of images from Kai that we are using as reference/mood for our next experimental short. Imaginative/surrealistic/dada feel.

Here a few of the first treatment board images from the...

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 09:44:57 +0800

Here a few of the first treatment board images from the director, Kai, on our new project, ‘Atmospheric Skull’. I recently posted the SFX track here – this is the same project.

I wonder if the ‘organic’ version (sans most SFX) is...

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 10:37:21 +0800

I wonder if the ‘organic’ version (sans most SFX) is a nicer read, and thus more usable for an animation?

This sound track will be the basis for our next project, a VFX...

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 21:37:31 +0800

This sound track will be the basis for our next project, a VFX short.

whatiseewhenirun: Twisty ( Falcataria Moluccana ) Went to visit...

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 16:27:58 +0800

whatiseewhenirun:

Twisty

( Falcataria Moluccana )

Went to visit my old aged mom recently at Bukit Mertajam, Malaysia. At the back of her house was a large paddy field, where the farmers grew rice. As I walked with my seven years old daughter along the edge of the padi field we came across a tree with hundreds of its brown seed pods scattered on the ground. Most of them have popped open and twisted under the hot sun. The contrast between the darker outer skin and the lighter inner skin with a waxy sheen caught my attention. The darker shades in-between also adds texture to the visual. I combined 3 pods for this shot.

Francis again sees something many of us might miss.

Alexander and Tom Dixon.

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 15:40:52 +0800

Alexander and Tom Dixon.

: it’s sad how most of the college majors that are considered “useful”...

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 09:49:14 +0800

: it’s sad how most of the college majors that are considered “useful”...:

cochelicot:

it’s sad how most of the college majors that are considered “useful” are the ones completely focused on technology, in which the user is only there to operate the machine and will be obsolete as soon as the next big thing comes along. everything else is expendable and useless and apparently anyone…

Well said. If you look at anything successful or worthwhile it’s always filled with passion… regardless of whether it’s body piercing or designing airplanes or creating marketing strategies or just the perfect piccolo latte… follow your passion first and then the money will come. At the very least, you’ll enjoy every day.

The Unassuming Tactician : Year 99

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 14:33:00 +0800

So I started on my next project, which at this point is some prose and facts about bamboo, one of the most amazing plants I’ve ever discovered.

I have some thoughts about how this idea can be pushed forward a bit more, but for now I’ll just share it in its current incarnation – some words on a page…

The Unassuming Tactician : Year 99

Geomancy describes the number ‘99’ as “inflexible, ruthless, and doubly long in time”. This little-known fact was recently brought to light as events culminated within a mature bamboo forest in a remote area of North Eastern India.

Read on to find out how the bamboo forest ensured its survival in the 99^th year of its existence – but not until it had ravaged the region in a ‘take-no-prisoners’ campaign of obliteration.

The Unassuming Tactician : Year 99

Virtually in unison, but not

hollow stocks clang in the wind

bending and swaying as silent soldiers

standing shoulder to shoulder

waiting for the command –

at first just a hollow rattling of sabers in the wind.

Bamboo is the plant world’s most rapidly growing and aggressive tactician.

The tactically-sound call is given in the middle of Year 99

as the almost-forever-silent general rallies his warriors

who hitherto have been reserved and benign

but now unleash a shrewd campaign of

deception, gluttony, terror… and later

deliberately… suicide.

The majestic bamboo tree flowers once every 65-120 years – bringing with it a shocking wave of pestilence and destruction.

Enchanting efflorescences

deceptively mask their true intentions while

decorating the ground like edible snow

doubling, doubling and re-doubling

a normally discreet and timidly meek

band of now ferociously fortified forest mice

who are soon engorged and emboldened.

Bamboo employs a gregarious flowering technique which floods foresting communities with excessive food stocks, spawning an explosion of pest populations.

Keenly signed on in blood

to do the army’s bidding

on a campaign of conquest

the generally humble mice now grow obscenely

with an appetite for consumption and destruction

as expansive as the pestilence they spread

while the hollow soldiers continue to calculate.

Widespread famine ravished a small, agrarian community located near the Bay of Bengal when voracious rodents unexpectedly devoured grain stocks.

Many hungry mouths

beg for life-sustaining sustenance

that does not exist nor will

as the conscious decision for death

has long since been strategised

and is now being perfectly executed

the way only the illogical historical truth

of peace through war can explain.

Bamboo creates a massive seed crop that depletes its life sustaining energy resources – causing it to die – but ensuring the survival of its seedlings.

Lightning obliges as oddly discarded seed debris

makes its purpose known

when wildfires ignite and envelop indiscriminately

first consuming dying bamboo trees

and then anything in their way

not an accident nor arbitrary

but a planned, staged, conscious way of war

only the aggressor can fathom.

As the bamboo forest dies, its debris sets the ideal stage for wildfires, leaving a peaceful enclave where young, aggressive bamboo shoots can thrive.

Plant, mice and human populations

sustain near apocalyptical impact

and struggle to somehow survive

as peace is finally restored

so a new bamboo army

may prosper plan and lie in wait

for at least for another 99 years.

Young bamboo shoots grow quickly and easily in many environments – especially those free from predators and competition.

###

Although somewhat embellished, Alexander claims that this story and its facts are true.

1: Yu-Na in ‘Solution Scheme’ was a working girl who...

Tue, 05 Feb 2013 11:14:30 +0800

1: Yu-Na in ‘Solution Scheme’ was a working girl who later posed naked as a way to get out of her previous lifestyle. Bauhaus walls reflected in glass of photo. 2: Real Bauhaus design by East Germans in collaboration with Communist China was said to be a disagreement from the beginning, but the Communists allowed it based on its pure ‘functionality.’

Question Re: 'Naked Woman' in 'Silent Industrial Towers'

Tue, 05 Feb 2013 10:56:00 +0800

Hi,

I looked at your video again. One thing I didn’t understand was the analogy or mention of a beautiful naked woman (maybe not quite your words) and how that related to the place. Was it your analogy of how the place once looked?

Alexander replies:

Okay, good question.

Yu-Na, in ‘Solution Scheme’, was a prostitute who tried to be free from her past life by teaming up with a photographer who put her on the Bauhaus walls, naked, with a bunch of businessmen in posed scenes.

Not an analogy at all. Fairly direct. So her pictures are still there and they must have been one of the “Art District’s” first exhibits.

I did buy her book. It’s what I would describe as 80s poster art. I found her story intriguing.

Then when I went outside and felt the parched earth and saw the gashes in the concrete and the weeds and the oil, I was in many ways in love with that place.

Nearly everyday I was in BJ, I was a bit irritated at the smog and air pollution. So I blamed it on this area.

That was the link between art and the hard work in the factories.

Thank you for your comment.

–a

Film: http://vimeo.com/58292942

A working file of a half a dozen or so poems. Raw file,...

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 15:55:12 +0800

A working file of a half a dozen or so poems. Raw file, unedited, no SFX yet. Will eventually be parceled and get sound design, possibly also used as soundtracks for short films.

Sometimes, doing the work is the easy part....

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 15:25:46 +0800

Sometimes, doing the work is the easy part. ‘Backstabber’, another ad from the ‘Empty Exclamations’ series.

More stills from our film. http://vimeo.com/58292942

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 14:09:46 +0800

More stills from our film. http://vimeo.com/58292942

A few stills from our film, ‘Silent Industrial...

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 14:08:35 +0800

A few stills from our film, ‘Silent Industrial Towers’. http://vimeo.com/58292942

A short, experimental film shot in Beijing, China.

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 10:13:36 +0800

A short, experimental film shot in Beijing, China.

It’s been some time since we began this project, and...

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 11:54:00 +0800

It’s been some time since we began this project, and inevitably, it’s taken longer than expected. Here, I happily share the VO boards as the three minute film continues its development in post.

And then, finally, the idea unlocks itself. —The second ad...

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 11:26:53 +0800

And then, finally, the idea unlocks itself. —The second ad in the ‘Empty Exclamations’ series, promoting the blog, The Empty Box.

Ricard sticker on door of Le Carillon de L’Angelus...

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 11:10:25 +0800

Ricard sticker on door of Le Carillon de L’Angelus restaurant on Club Street, Singapore.

The first ad promoting The Empty Box, from my ‘Empty...

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 14:10:00 +0800

The first ad promoting The Empty Box, from my ‘Empty Exclamations’ campaign.