Project Disrupt: Gavin Brown

Project Disrupt: Gavin Brown

When I first heard of the contest, I had found myself working too much and I hadnt been giving myself that much needed creative break. I was drawn immediately to Project Disrupt when I heard it described as a creative firestarter. Upon hearing that I was selected, I immediately knew what I wanted to create; a stop-motion pixilation project. A short video that would encapsulate both the artistic effects of the Sol 45, the flexibility of the Lume Cube and the lightweight travel of the Mountain Smith bag, while combining my fondness for stop-motion. I have always loved the dark and twisted worlds of Eastern European stop-motion filmmakers and had been wanting to create something influenced by their films. I wanted to bring a level of surreal darkness, experimentation and stop-motion together with the use of the Sol 45, Lume Cube, and Mountainsmith bag.

Stop-motion is traditionally created by photographing a puppet one frame at a time and moving them slighting in between when each frame is taken. The pixilation process is the exact same, but instead of miniature puppets, I was moving humans a frame at a time. I had this idea of a demon descending through a forest at night. By using the Lume Cube with colored gels to accent the environment, I was able to add color and depth to the darkness of the forest. I loved using the Sol 45 because it was simple and straightforward. I didnt have to think about what I would set my F-stop to, that was already decided for me and I could focus on the rest of the composition. I was really excited to be able to create a darker and more experimental world with the tilt feature of the Sol 45. I feel that I would not have been able to create the same world if I had used a different lens.

I really enjoyed using the Lume Cube, not only because it was small, but also because its versatile. In a really short time I was able to set up, adjust the brightness through the Lume-X app, and add a colored gel and I was ready to photograph! The amount of gear I had wanted to bring into the woods at night was greatly decreased by using the Lume Cube, and was made even easier to carry all of it with the Mountainsmith bag. I could toss the camera and lens, lights, gels, and even a snack into the Mountainsmith bag and tromp off into the woods at night with a tripod over my shoulder feeling 100% confident with the tools I had.

I am excited to use this first stop-motion experiment as a springboard into my next creative project. Project Disrupt has gotten me to think outside of the box on how to push myself with my own creativity.

All images shot with Sol 45.

Check out more of Gavin's work on his website, Facebook, Vimeo, YouTube & Instagram.