Stockland Martel

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Last Thursday, we hosted a big opening-night party for “Craig Cutler: From Sketchbook to Studio,” an exhibition of Craig’s conceptual photography and the sketches he makes as he works out his ideas. The night also marked the debut of a handful of motion pieces that Craig created in collaboration with the team at Industrial Color. These short films all took rather ordinary items, like honey, a pair of forks, or water balloons, and elevated them into something magical and mesmerizing.

“I watch people’s emotional reactions to it, and when it’s over, people have this sense of release, almost like they’ve just had a massage,” says Steve Kalalian, president of Industrial Color, referring to Craig’s dancing-forks film, which is set to African-inspired percussion. “People start out leaning back in their chair, and by the end they’re leaning into the TV. They start zoning into it and become almost hypnotized.”

Craig and the Industrial Color crew worked at a fairly brisk pace. They shot for four days at Fast Ashley’s Studios in Williamsburg, a sister company of Industrial Color. Craig used the RED camera for some of the pieces and the Phantom for others. As Steve notes, the RED camera “has taken the already industry by storm,” but the Phantom is a relatively new player on the scene. New and exciting. It offers super-slow-motion capabilities—Craig used it for a piece starring some dripping honey.

“A lot of times people shoot with the Phantom and because it’s incredible to watch things in slow motion, they just play [the footage back] that way. It’s a linear approach,” says Steve. “We turned these linear pieces into something artistic. The honey dripping was literally a two-second shot that wound up being five minutes of film. We flipped it on its side and mirrored it to create these abstract, beautiful, flowing graphic visuals. That’s where I think Craig really elevates the game. I’ve seen a lot of people use the Phantom, but it’s more scientific. Craig’s work is very graphic, very visual, very narrative. It brings an emotional feel to this scientific camera.”

Editing took three to five days. They used Final Cut, which, Steve notes, now offers a much higher level of color correction in video. “What’s happening with photographers getting into video is they want to control the color. There’s sophisticated color tools that in the past have been very expensive, like Avid or Smoke systems. But with Final Cut’s newest color component, a similar level of color work is now available in the desktop.”

Craig’s opening last week, which was timed to coincide with the relaunch of craigcutler.com (designed by Alexander Duckworth), drew a huge crowd. But even though it was so packed that people were shoulder to shoulder, Steve is right about the motion pieces having a hypnotic effect. I watched the guests watching the films, which we screened in the patio behind the gallery. At exhibition openings, you find that people rarely spend much time looking at the art; they’re more focused on socializing and enjoying the free drinks. But on this night, people paid attention.

“The interesting thing I heard big time at the event was the art buyers and print producers were inspired,” says Steve. “It’s not just something for photographers to explore. They were all getting it at that moment.”

“Craig Cutler: From Sketchbook to Studio” is on view at The Gallery @ Stockland Martel by appointment only. Please contact [email protected] to arrange a visit.

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