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Rippled- All India Radio

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Even though it has only been on the great intraweb for about a week you may have already seen this new light painting animation from the creative minds of OH YEAH WOW and ALL INDIA RADIO. “Rippled” has already racked up more than 80,000 views on youtube and that is because of the tireless work that went into the making of and promotion of this awesome piece. Rippled is one of the best light painting animations I have seen in a while so I thought I would ask Darcy Prendergast, one of the minds behind this piece, some questions about the making of this little monster. Check out the video and read the full interview below.

Over 6 months in the making and almost 3 years on from ‘Lucky’ their first light painting collaboration Darcy Prendergast and the creative team at OH YEAH WOW have again paired with the beautiful music of ALL INDIA RADIO to bring you their latest music video, ‘Rippled’. Painstakingly animated frame by frame, the piece is all shot in camera, by real people, in the real world, using long exposure techniques… We hope you enjoy.

All India Radio- The Silent Surf, OUT NOW at:http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/the-silent-surf/id402035973

For more info visit www.allindiaradio.com.au or www.ohyeahwow.com

Darcy Prendergast Interview…

LPP ∇ So Rippled is one of the best light painting animations I have seen in a long time, where did the inspiration and concept come from?
DP ∇ Why thank you! We sure worked damn hard on it to ensure it was right up there…

Well the inspiration came from this god awful German graffiti crew who were ‘tagging’ the sky with light. They’d edited some of their images with an equally awful German Hip Hop track, at like a frame rate of 1FPS. It was more a slideshow really, but it then got me thinking about stitching more images together at a proper frame rate, and soon after the foundations of Lucky were in place.

LPP ∇ What the hell kind of critter is that thing anyway? It sort of looks like an overweight cat that ran into a parked car….
DP ∇ I think you aptly describe him.

LPP ∇ Where did you shoot Rippled?
DP ∇ It was shot in various abandoned warehouses around Melbourne… We wanted to shoot in a somewhat dystopian landscape. There is something so eerily beautiful about these areas, that are surrounded by various hives of activity but have been forgotten about by society itself.

LPP ∇ I saw that it took over 6 months to create, how many nights did you actually shoot this piece?
DP ∇ We weren’t shooting every night, but it wasn’t far from it. I think its the first animated piece I’ve ever done where we did multiple re shoots, planned out camera moves, starting times and things of this nature. After Lucky, we knew we wanted to re visit the medium- but didn’t want to re visit it too soon. We wanted to hone our craft and ensure we were going to push beyond what we thought possible. I guess that is the reason I was so pedantic about it… I knew how good this piece could be if we got it exactly right. That was partly the reason for it taking 6 months to create- that an animation is an inherently slow process.

LPP ∇ How many individual photos did you take?
DP ∇ Over 10,000 I think, not that I counted…

LPP ∇ What was the average exposure time of a single shot?
DP ∇ Thats something you’ve really got to find a balance with, depending on how well lit a scene is. If its a relatively bright shot already, a 10 second exposure would suffice- but might not give you enough time to complete your drawing. On the opposite end of the spectrum, if you have a really dark shot with a 30 second exposure- you may only need 5 to draw the character… and you’re standing around for 25 seconds every frame, which kind of kills the mood. We found that 15-20 seconds worked in most situations, but we steer clear of any street lights and things like that where possible.

LPP ∇ In all those nights there had to be something crazy that happened, would you like to share anything?
DP ∇ Ha! Abandoned factories will definitely serve up some strange encounters… we almost got in a fight with a group of drunks who knocked the camera 3 quarters through a shot. That was fun to line back up again. Ummm but I think the craziest thing we saw though was ‘the naked chromer’. We took all of gear into one of the compounds we were shooting in and here is this guy about 10 metres away, surrounded by spray cans, completely naked, huffing away. We couldn’t help but laugh… but stopped when his head slowly turned (reminiscent of a scene from the exorcist or something) to reveal these
glassy yet evil eyes and a silver mouth. We found a new room to shoot in that night.

LPP ∇ The rippled effects are awesome what are they made of?
DP ∇ Our trusty friend, alfoil. We made a whole bunch of replacement ripples that we lugged around in a big garbage bag every night.

LPP ∇ Did you have the entire animation scripted or did you come up with stuff while on location?
DP ∇ Unlike Lucky, this wasn’t an unplanned ‘have fun with the medium’ kind of approach. We still had fun- we’d still have a few drinks whilst shooting, but we were never stuck for things to shoot. I knew what themes I wanted to play with and whilst its an abstract narrative, there is still very much a narrative involved. Lucky was spontaneous- we would leave the studio as soon as night fell and spend an hour or 2 on set every night just trying to think of what to shoot. There wasn’t much of a direction. Whilst thoroughly planned, Rippled was a visceral formation, we’d still experiment, find new techniques, and chase down things we thought had potential.

LPP ∇ What was the most difficult part of the project?
DP ∇ Motivation is always tough I guess, because you’re out shooting until the sun rises most nights. You’re sleeping patterns are thrown even further out of whack, which was especially hard for the crew- most of which have part time jobs and such. Its tough when you wake up, and its only a couple of hours before you have to go and do it all again. This being said- we all
believed in the project. It was a labour of love, and we knew the result would be worth it if we just saw it through.

LPP ∇ What was the best part of the project?
DP ∇ I think just shooting with my close friends. Under the cover of night, we’d bump all our gear into the warehouses, have a few drinks, play some music, hang out with creative purpose. A project like this wouldn’t be possible without people like them and a team like that…

The way we work is foreign and insane to most, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

LPP ∇ Thanks for your time awesome work.

April Light Painting Contest Winner

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And the Winner is…..

Kevin Lajoie with this ONE SINGLE UNBROKEN LINE light painting image. Aprils contest was a very difficult one to judge it came down to a vote of 2 to 1 in the final round. There were some really great images submitted but only a few that followed the THEME of the contest. Click HERE to see the contest theme for May and how to enter.

April Light Painting Contest Entries

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Here are the entries for the April Contest. Everyone PLEASE VOTE in the comment section of the page to pick your favorite image or images, the images all have a number in the title. When voting remember the theme of this months contest was to create a light painting composition using ONLY ONE SINGLE UNBROKEN LINE!

MRI Light Painting and the GLOBRUSH

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MRI Light Painting has had some super secret project in the works for some time now and they recently revealed what this hush hush was all about……They created the light painting photography for Arm and Hammers new toothbrush the Globrush! MRI’s light painting work will be seen around the world in the Globrush international print ad campaign. BAM!

Click the link below to see more from the ad campaign, take the Globrush challenge, and learn how to brush your smelly teeth. Check out MRI Light Painting Website HERE.

http://www.spinbrush.com/Products_Spinbrush-Globrush.html

Two New Lichtfaktor Light Painting Ads

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Lichtfaktor has been hard at work creating some super cool ads. The above video was shot for a energy provider in Düsseldorf/Germany “SWD”. This ad was a little different from what they normally do in that the light drawing were almost all done by citizens of Düsseldorf, the town in which the scene were shot. Lichtfaktor held a workshop for all of the new light painters and this video was the result.

The second light painting video (below) was shot in Korea for KDB (Korean Development Bank), it was a difficult shoot for the crew capturing and creating light paintings in freezing temperatures around -15 C.

The 12:31 Light Painting Project

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In In 1981, Joseph Paul Jernigan was sentenced to death for stabbing and shooting 75-year-old Edward Hale, who discovered him stealing a microwave oven. Jernigan spent 12 years in prison before his final plea for clemency was denied. His cadaver was sectioned and photographed for the Visible Human Project at the University of Colorado’s Health Sciences Center.

In 2011 two artist used light painting photography to put it back together. Art director Croix Gagnon and photographer Frank Schott used an animation of the 1871 slices of Jernigan’s body played back full screen on a laptop and the open shutter of a camera to create these ghostly images. Check out the animation and images below…

I think the concept is super cool but I almost feels like it glorifies a murderer… What do you think?

LAPP-PRO Interview about their new book “Painting With Light”

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The fathers of Light Art Performance Photography JanLeonardo Woellert and Joerg Miedza, a.k.a. LAPP-PRO, have written a book about light painting. I got the opportunity to ask LAPP-PRO some questions about what we can expect to find under the cover and about their experience writing the book. Check out the interview below.

LPP ∇ 1st Congratulations of finishing the book, what an exciting time! You guys have inspired so many artists with your incredible work, what inspired you to put out a Light Art Performance Photography book?

LAPP-PRO ∇ Thank you very much. 1st, all you guys have created a lot of very good light art performance pictures and you all have shown the whole new light art world how LAPP can appear. All we together made LAPP to what it is today, a new category in light art.

Ok, someone has to invent the “guitar”. That was the job, done by LAPP-PRO.de. But now, we all can play on that amazing new instrument. Everyone shall start to make music. One day, there will be music all around the world.

We are very proud to be the one to infect you with the light art performance photography virus. From the first day of our light art life, we liked to be the spark who start a fire in others heads. This is exactly what we love to do.

The book was a perfect product for us to present a gallery abroad from computer based websites or presentations. Something to touch and to linger for a longer time.

LPP ∇ Can you tell me a little bit about what is in the book?

LAPP-PRO ∇ Our expectation to the book and our first idea for the book was to have a fine art gallery in panorama format on printed paper. Connected to our personally story and what our way into LAPP was. In an early phase, our publisher ask us to add a complex “Making-Of” with all the details. Together we have considered this and made the decision to present a huge gallery with our story and only to show some LAPP basics, not a complete cookbook. We did not regret this. And the feedback from the readers are very positive. All the details and all the informations are way to big to mix this with the Gallery-Idea in one book. Maybe later, in one of our next books, we present you something like a cookbook.
But I am confident, that most of you guys, do not really need such a cookbook. All the creative heads in the whole new light art world, discover day by day and night by night how all the lightart ideas flow into your head, as soon as they started to go out for making LAPP at night. Enjoy it, those nights are the birthplace of your own style, your own piece of your light art future.

LPP ∇ What can the reader expect to get out of reading your book?

LAPP-PRO ∇ The reader can look onto a huge gallery of our artwork until the beginning. More than 220 Pages! Also, they can read our complete story and what LAPP means to us. We present 10 of our best photos with a lot of additional information and how the idea for these picture were created. In the book is also a short chapter to show you some of the real basics in making photos by night and create a light art performance photography.

LPP ∇ Who is the book written for? Is it for artist and art lovers or is it more technical and geared toward photographers?

LAPP-PRO ∇ I would like to say, that this book is a little bit more intensive for all the artists and art lovers than for the technicians or photographers among yourselves. This book shows you what you are able to create in your own head, if you get involved either with both sides of your camera. The only limit is your own creativity – Let it out! It is for all the people who like to be more active in making photos. Not only to stay behind the camera.

LPP ∇ I read online that in the end of the book there is a workshop section, is the book instructional?

LAPP-PRO ∇ It is not a cookbook but we think it is a good basic instruction with all what matters for making photos by night and especially making your first LAPP-Pictures.

LPP ∇ What is your favorite image in the book?

LAPP-PRO ∇ We have no single picture selected. It is very complex and we have found out, that most of the pictures, and the attention to it is connected to an emotional phase in your life or even a single day. You can compare it like listening music. Some people select sad songs if they are feeling sad and, some select the happy-song if they are feeling sad. Generally, we love the pictures which were make at special places. There you can feel the magic from the location with all the other impressions at night, the sounds and the light art at night. You can see in our “Background-Story”-section some special pieces from this kind. Lumen Attacks was one of the locations were you can feel all the history in it. Also 1.2.3.Freddy, which is our first picture what was created as a team-picture, is special. We are very connected to these pictures, but all the other pictures have their own special story.

LPP ∇ What would you say is the most important part about shooting a light art performance photograph?

LAPP-PRO ∇ Real LAPP will never be a snapshot and you gotta like the trial and error system. As time drew on, all your trials and errors will show you the way into your own light.

LPP ∇ Do you guys ever shoot images on your own or are all of your images shot together?

LAPP-PRO ∇ Yes we did a lot of picture on our own. Especially the early experiments. Single elements for a later picture/for the final shoot. You have to train a lot of movements and testing light tools before they can be used at final shoots. A lot of those pictures are created immediately as they arrived in your head. Therefore, you make those pictures on your own for discussing this later in the team. In the beginning days at summer 2007, Jan made a lot of pictures alone before we started together in autum 2007. You can make a lot of things on your own. But later, when you start to manage more complex performances, the result is better in a team. There are two or more creative heads with four or more hands. Even if the performances become more complexness you can see how good a team can manage all the performance steps into the picture. Jan and I have overcome LAPP-Pictures with more than 30 single steps into one picture. And besides, it’s just nice to not be alone into the dark night.

LPP ∇ What was your favorite part about writing the book?

LAPP-PRO ∇ For both of us it was to gain the reader an insight about the fascination and passion what it may mean with light and photography for the adolescent light artist

LPP ∇ What was the worst part about writing the book?

LAPP-PRO ∇ Honestly, there was no worst part in create the first book and we can´t wait to do this again…

LPP ∇ What is next for LAPP-PRO?

LAPP-PRO ∇ nto the second half of 2011, we begin to present the light art interested people some light art performance workshops. We starting in Germany and maybe one day we come all around the world. At the moment, we build a new concept in close collaboration with our supporters from LED-LENSER-Germany, LEATHERMAN-USA, CANON-Europe and ZEISS-Germany. Maybe one day, we go out together somewhere else on our new light art planet for creating light art together.

LPP ∇ Thank you very much for you time, I wish you many sales…

CLICK THE LINK TO GET YOUR COPY! Painting With Light: Light Art Performance Photography