a film by Christian Volckman.
"... the film seems further proof that students of architectural design should stop pinning all their hopes solely on architecture, and consider guerilla careers as film, or even game, start-ups, using their graphic ideas and energy to take over Hollywood." BldgBlog
4 Comments
hmmm. It seems to me that phenomena has been occuring for at least the last two decades. Architects have joined the ranks of hollywood at the levels of animation, set design, etc.
And I would surmise that there are potentially more than one former architect who has won an oscar as a part of larger group of creative endeavor. Whether this leads to the excesses that Geoff extolls as the rewards for such work is anyones guess.
But as some of you might remember that the guys from Pink Floyd were also architects, which I imagine has give them much more than the architects who have defected into the land of false hope called hollywood...
My intention, in the post linked above, wasn't to say that architects would have more fun and make more money if they started a rock band, or acted in films, or managed a hedge fund - but to suggest that once you've made a site animation, using CAD or Sketch Up or whatever, complete with buildings, people, background, skylines, fauna, sky, weather, etc., why leave it at that?
You could develop it, produce a narrative, a voice-over, a soundtrack, an idea behind the imagery, different scenes and sequences. This would then be a "film." Make enough of those, with a narrative arc and some good writing and interesting music and an idea behind it all, and it may look clunky but you're bringing your architecture to a cinematic audience, in a cinematic format.
I mean, it may be slightly cynical: your dream project probably won't get built, and if you get a little pamphlet published by Birkhäuser to show-off a few images you once drew, then maybe a couple hundred people will see it and you can then find a job at a small college in Arkansas - but if you go the cinematic route, working with writers, musicians, etc., on the cheap, drinking coffee at midnight surrounded by Power Macs, you could very easily find a huge audience waiting for more of your architectural and urbanistic ideas. Which in turn would give you more ideas, it would put your ideal buildings and ideal cities out there for more people to see, and the ball would start rolling.
That's not a new idea, of course - but what's invigorating, at least to me, is that the technologies and software now available mean you could have a whole film produced by the time your degree is done, and thus a whole other direction open to you in life should you want to take it.
And then, of course: it'd be fun.
Hi Geoff... I truly thank you for bringing this subject to light with your initial post and the clarity of your commentary. Would you have any specific historical precedents where architects took their architectural / urban ideas and repackaged it for a cinematic audience? This would be an interesting subject to trace... criticality being somewhere between film school and machinima "mashups".
Hey Steve - This thread is picked up a bit on BLDGBLOG in another post: Cinematic Urbanism. Nic Clear, at the Bartlett in London, has been using film production as an architectural design stimulant (among other such courses, taught elsewhere, to be sure). That post uses images taken from Nic's class.
Meanwhile, Alex Steffen, at WorldChanging, picks up on the idea and develops it in his own, interesting direction: film as an urban design catalyst for purposes of ecological sustainability.
Historically speaking, however, I have to say I can't point out much - vis-a-vis using film as an alternative route toward communicating architectural and urbanismic ideas - but the future, one hopes, is bright.
But feel free to jump in and leave comments on BLDGBLOG and what not. Or not, of course, but if you make your own film... be in touch. Would love to see it.
And, Patrick, agreed - I'm excited about Renaissance!
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