A Director's Journey

[aaronchristian]

[aaronchristian]

De Jeugd Van Tegenwoordig - Manon

[aaronchristian]

After a years worth of shooting, a few more months of post production, then an added few months of having to submit to film festivals and provide exclusivity, I’m finally able to release my debut short online. 

It’s been a crazy experience, I now truly understand how much patience you need to have to be a filmmaker. 

Anyhow it’s finally online and i hope you enjoy it. 

[aaronchristian]

So finally after a year in the making I present my Mockumentary The Life of Pitti Peacocks. 

If I told you the amount of setbacks I had trying to complete this film, you simply wouldn't believe me. 

Anyhow I won’t dwell on all that, it’s here and I’m proud I managed to get it over the finish line. 

A massive shout out to mr Jamie Millar whom helped write the script and the talented James Gilles who’s hilarious narration helped pull it all together. 

Now all that’s left is for you guys to go and share :) 

[aaronchristian]

So here it is. I’ve finally started to complete all my original pieces. 

As a director that began in menswear, I’ve seen my fair share of fashion films and shorts throughout the years.

Being an avid menswear enthusiastic I understand that telling the story of style is an important thing, however I feel that fashion very often takes itself a little too seriously. It’s important to be able to take a step back and actually look at what the industry can look like from an outsider.

This parody was a way of being able to poke fun at a industry that I’m genuinely passionate about but at the same time see how ridiculous it can all get.

I wanted to see what it would look like if I took the fashion film concept and style and placed in the a different environment. An environment I grew up in. What happens when you replace the global sartorial stylish environment with the gritty street style while keeping all the enthusiasm the subject has for their image and style.

[aaronchristian]

So I finally complete London Locks, it’s been a crazy long journey, and I only understand now what some directors go through to get projects through the door. It’s never as easy as it seems - please believe that. 

Anyhow now starts the next part of the journey which is to enter it into film festivals. This is a whole new experience so I’ll try and post up the parts which I think are interesting and share my learnings. However I didnt realise how much there is to do (and I’m only a few days into my research) 

The digital landscape has completely changed they way a film or video is now marketed and promoted. The old style (which is what I feel festivals still are in a way) have so many different elements to them.

Think about it; previously the only way to really get heard or your films seen, was to go through the festival circuit and promote the hell out of it. It would help that your project was actually good but there were no guarantees. Plus for a young film maker the costs could rack up very quickly. 

Noways with youtube and vimeo, self publishing has taken over. Vimeo now even put the power of selling and screening your films in the film makers hands. So it’s really changing how people market, sell and consume films. And don’t get me wrong that’s a great thing. 

However it’s just ONE route out of many others. The reason why I’m choosing to send this project to festivals is simply because i haven’t done so before. I want to try and learn a new approach and so far I learnt that: 

1. It’ll expose my work and talents to people within the industry whom I’ve not previously been able to reach. 

2. I’ll make me look at my work from a new angle and add a level of professionalism to the way I approach and create my films / content moving forward (after getting a professional grade and sound mix I never want to go back :) ) 

3. I’ll be able to mingle and network with fellow film makers. Feeling part of a wider community (which you dont really get to do when you simply press publish on vimeo / youtube). I hope this will sharpen my film eye and learn to appreciate how other artists approach their work too. 

Anyhow so yes I did convince myself, but didnt realise what was in store. So far one of the first stages was to complete and create a promotional poster. This one was designed by Erik Ahnebrink a good friend and fellow Mr Porter Alumni. I loved his stripped back minimal approach to his work and I feel he’s done a great job with this. I wanted it to have a distinctively LONDON feel and Pharaoh’s self portrait (a subject in the film) worked perfectly to help create that. It done two things in my eyes: 

1. Put the hair as the subject and focus

2. The styling of the bowler had is a strong British feel, coupled with the London Underground font I felt it was more than enough to let viewers know this had a London theme (yea the title kinda helps too ) 

As this is a pretty personal blog (and something I’m not gonna promote too much i dont really expect too much attention. But if you are reading and had any comments or feedback, would always be interested in hearing. 

A

[linxsupply]

[aaronchristian]

Precisely 

[aaronchristian]

So today I’ve been going through production companies, Looking for both inspiration and well building up my network abroad really, Stumbled upon this ad. Although it’s not my style as a director at all I feel in love with it. I know we’re all getting tired of advertising but when I see things like this, written so well and executed even better, it’s what makes me feel I love being a director. 

[aaronchristian]

Thought this was a great video to share. Although I’ve been working on content and film for over 8 years now, I’m still extremely young in my directing career, and like every other creative I go through times of doubt. Directing is a pretty odd occupation in that now one really tells you how exactly things are done. 

From a technical perspective and even a career move perspective. There isn't a rule book on what it takes to become simply a working director let alone a great one. 

Many of the greats have come from so many different fields. From art direction to set design, from Literature to comedy. Its a massive field which can be approached from so many different angles. 

One thing I’ve learned recently is that you really improve when you surround yourselves with great people. And this GOT video shows how many people go unappreciated in film and TV. The camera operators are amazingly talented people and throughout my careers they have certainly really helped elevate my work. This video really helped me appreciate how much I need to improve and learn. 

[aaronchristian]

Loved this short motion graphics based piece. The subtly of the music and graphics, within the video works really well. 

It also reminded me of the old design meetings we used to have during my time at MR PORTER. The design team I worked with was one of the most talented ensemble I’d ever worked with. Our weekly meeting would see the whole team bring in references across the design sphere and elaborated upon them. A favourite was old film poster references for help in editorial design. There’s something about bringing back to to life the timeless design in this video that really strikes a chord with me. 

[aaronchristian]

Back to the start

So this is my first post, for my new journal. It’s a little crazy to feel I’m actually starting a new blog so to speak. Having built Individualism from the ground up almost eight years ago, and being one of the original members of the creative team at MR PORTER, creating online content feels; well sometimes a little pointless. 

Who the hell is gonna read your shit now right? What’s the point in starting a new blog that’ll not only be drowned out by not just another million blogs, but probably a thousand new content platforms too. 

Well I’ve been in the industry long enough to know that the digital cultures change rapidly. One of the original reasons for blogging (sharing your thoughts and experiences) seems to have been lost a little in this new age. 

Our personal feeds seem to be so highly reflective on what we’d like to be seen as or known for - that I feel I lost one of the main reasons I used to blog, which was to help express myself and document my progress. 

So this is just that, it’s not a highly curated set of images that show how cool I am, or a set or carefully written articles that’s designed to climb up Googles ranking rather than actually produce something interesting or original. And finally, it’s not a set of pointless videos that documents every single pointless second of my day (that’s snap chat if you don’t know) 

No, the point of this blog is to simply be a place where I can document the things I’m working on and hopefully provide an interesting insight into the world of a young digital film maker. 

And, from time to time publish interesting or inspiring things without the fear of feeling that - it’s fucking up my design or my feed / layout. 

So it’s what really got me into this whole digital content world in the first place. And egoless blog which actually provides some useful information :)