im interested to see how the promotional imagery will look for Violence.
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A follow-on - and arguably a step up - from our earlier foray into sweat-soaked post-fight t-shirting, our latest Violence update lives up to the project name (and is not for those of a delicate constitution). A week ago, Tristan Thomson and Antony Parsons filmed the fights and the aftermath of an Ultimate Challenge UK cage combat event at East London's Troxy. Our three minute edit, featuring the Titan fighters team Chris Grieg, Jason Young, Brad 'One Punch' Pickett, Dean Bray and Mickey Papas, captures in explicit detail the raw brutality of cage combat as the contestants spar. In startling contrast, to close the film Tristan towels down the contestants to send further samples to Sissel Tolaas in Berlin to help bring the Violence fragrance to fruition.
Many thanks to the Titan Fighters team, Dave O'Donnell and Atif.
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Hello Sakis,
so am I.
At this point in the project I am just collecting as much material as possible to give Sissel enough samples to carry out her research.
To be honest I keep swaying in my mind from having very "real" or raw imagery such as the stills from this film to creating imagery from a studio session under much more controlled conditions.
There is a session planned for a live broadcast in the studio which was supposed to happen about 3 weeks ago but had to be postponed at the last minute for logistical reasons.It is being rescheduled and will be announced on SHOWstudio soon.
Incidentally you might notice in this film the fighters are not wearing the white Zimmerli vests that previous fighters have worn. That is because in these sort of cage fights the rules do not allow the wearing of t-shirts, which is why my assistant Tristan toweled the sweat of the fighters in between rounds and at the end of the fight.
Whenever I read about this project I am reminded about Comme des Garcons' Odeur 53. On paper it sounded like a gimmick, using essences of burnt rubber and oil etc, but as anyone who follows C.D.G. knows they don't do 'weird for the sake of weird' and after the initial shock of how the fragrance smelled it really grew on me. I think it was strangely sexy despite it's industrial chemical smells.
I am kind of hoping that your "Violence" fragrance will be like that, in that on the first smelling of it you don't like it and then it really grows on you.
I couldn't help consider your dilemma about what type of promotional imagery to use.
After putting myself in your shoes, so to speak I decided that the best of both worlds would be to have a studio shoot with lots of raw energy (Perhaps even with some real fighting) but to capture it on DV and use stills, or pixelated webcam (Similar to your ID Magazine shoot "My Assistant Ruth". ) This would take some of the glamour and polish away but still give you control.
I'm very keen to see how this develops, as I think shoots are at their most exciting when there is very little pre-conceived.
Good luck with the project!
i wonder...the experiment of violence would has any crucial difference if the fighters were not english but other races eg chinese....
This is a fascinating project. I've been wondering about the comic extremes of the scent's eventual application; The finale of Suskind's book 'Perfume' obviously springs to mind. Could it be the key to England's victory in the next world cup..? Or an underhanded lever in securing a job on 'The Apprentice'? Will we read about hordes of unsuspecting women devouring a soft-spoken filing clerk on his morning tube commute in a frighteningly real tribute to the Lynx Effect? Or better still could it impel over-armoured riot police to break rank and down their arsenal scattering like junior baboons from a horny Alpha? Could this add a whole new olfactory dimension to Tour De France doping scandals? Eager for the TBC on this one.