CRXSS PLATFXRM

Danced-based art film for Arts Council funded street culture festival Crxss Platfxrm, shot on 16mm. Directed by Stefano Ottaviano.

Collaborating again with director, Stefano Ottaviano, we took on the challenge to shoot with 16mm to create a unique look for this short danced-based promo.

Crxss Platfxrm, a street culture festival born out of Peckham, seeks to find and curate the more unusual artists that may be overlooked in the arts scene. Stefano was commissioned by the group for a photography shoot but decided to try and add in a film shoot with the small fee he was receiving. This is where I came in, with less than 3 weeks to carry out pre-production, recce, source crew, cast and equipment, shoot, edit, grade and deliver in time for the festival’s next event. After calling up previous collaborator Alasdair Boyce to DP, we decided to make everything even more complicated and shoot on 16mm film.

Introducing a hard limit on how much we could capture (we had 4 rolls which is just 33 minutes of footage), meant that I had to place massive emphasis on Stefano to prepare every single shot in each location to the nth degree. We drew up a plan for how many seconds we would shoot for each shot in each location to ensure that we would not get to the final location and have run out of film.

Stefano wanted the film to feel expansive and rangey and therefore we needed to hit multiple locations. We recced over many days to find spots that fulfilled the brief’s requirement, and against the timeline we faced, had to accept that there was no time to attain filming permissions for them all.

Using the group’s contacts, 3 dancers were cast, and Crxss Platfxrm’s Artistic Director, Ivan Blackstock, choreographed and rehearsed with them a movement that worked with the director’s concept.

Our team had to be nimble and precise on the day of the shoot, we were moved on from one location but our back up plan came through and we attained the majority of the shots the director was hoping to get. Alasdair’s expertise with film removed any logistical fears I had and made the day feel no different from shooting on digital.

In post, after an amazingly quick turnaround from Cinelabs, processing and scanning the film, I contacted another previous collaborator, Caroline Morin. Caroline had by this time moved to a new grading studio, Wash, with an elevated role. The producer was very generous and arranged a huge discount so that we could get the footage coloured in-budget and on-schedule. A collaborator of the Crxss Platfxrm group, Torben Lars Sylvest, was contacted for producing a bespoke track and worked with the director remotely during the edit.

The film was screened during the “Turning Tides” festival for which Crxss Platfxrm was curating a series of performances.

EDITORIAL

CRXSS PLATFXRM Artistic Director: Ivan Blackstock  

CRXSS PLATFXRM Producer: Georgina Harper   

CRXSS PLATFXRM Project Director: Lee Griffiths  

CRXSS PLATFXRM Digital Producer: Suhayla Ibrahim