the third and the seventh

after a much longer break from taow than anticipated, here is a post, we believe, worthy of starting out 2010. linked to this amazingly beautiful film via our [big] little brother, the third and the seventh, by spanish filmmaker Alex Roman.

The Third & The Seventh from Alex Roman on Vimeo.

the description of the film is simply this:

a full CG piece that tries to illustrate architecture art across a photographic point of view where main subjects are already built spaces.
sometimes in an abstract way. sometimes surreal.

watch the video again...in full screen. did you say this is completely CGI? as in no real life footage?? evidently there are a few bits of real time footage in here: sky backgrounds, pigeons flying, the wandering photographer character, time-lapse plants and the airplane flying overhead. but they are a very small fraction of the work that has been put into the final product.

usually, taow are champions of the real, the textural, the sensual nature of experiencing life. but this is something else. this is a visual feast of gluttony on poetic images. but how does that explain why are we are so drawn to it then?

maybe it is the hyper-reality rendering style, or maybe it is the exceptional pieces of architecture that were chosen to be rendered: kahn's exeter library, mies' barcelona pavilion, calatrava's milwaukee art museum, ando's chikatsu-asuka historical museum, among many others. or maybe it is the touch of sur-reality near the end, or maybe it is the chance that this could be real, or we desperately want it to be real...

the soundtrack helps immensely, and some of you will recognize part of the score from the film GATTACA [also a favorite]. alex has also posted some screen capture videos of creating the exeter library 3d model and you can see it here:

Exeter Shot -- Making Of from Alex Roman on Vimeo.

where this film seems to succeed the most is through its completely immersible quality. the successive combinations of various view compositions and scene transitions mimic the way your eye travels through out a space. more random, sporadic--first a close-up detail view follows a wide angle shot of the entire space, which then changes depth of field focus. this is more accurate to the way humans experience space, not by a single tracking "fly-through" around or inside a building.

maybe if this is how all architects could present all their work...there would be a larger emphasis on quality of craft and construction.

good wishes for 2010.

props to devin for the killer link!

*UPDATE: we were pointed to an interview with Alex Roman [aka Jorge Seva] on his animation project here.

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