I was brought on board by MasterClass to create title graphics for Es Devlin’s ‘Turning Ideas into Art’ series, which focuses on her process from sketches and models to building large-scale installations. The titles were all shot in-camera and utilize projected animations provided by Luke Halls Studio. Special thanks to Lauren Fundora and Es Devlin for their creative direction and insight on this project.

The concept revolves around Es’ love for mazes and how they become metaphors for the mind. This led us to build a model maze in which viewers discovered various chambers hosting miniature references to Es’ installations. This model maze allowed for several opportunities to play with scale and the audience’s presence by incorporating small figurines. These scale figures are often seen in Es’ work and conceptually represent the audience in our titles. Each sequence will show these models frozen in a moment of exploration, drawn towards the various rooms that embody Es’ memories and creative process.
 

We created a total of 15 chapter and 48 subchapter title reveals for Es Devlin’s class. Our intention was to make the titles appear like vignettes of Es Devlin’s work table, as though they are part of her process during instruction. The class also focuses on how she shapes light for environments, so many of the graphics use shadow-play and projected light to reveal each environment. Luke Halls Studio provided several animations for me to work with, which created a nice connection between the live action projection mapping and our title reveals.

Luckily the MasterClass team had already dialed in an aesthetic for the class when I was brought on board, so my style frames were mostly for proof of concept. These stills allowed me to match their specific color grade and show how typography could be revealed. The style frames also exhibit my explorations of materials, varying between different types of surfaces to create the models or manipulate light.

The entire graphics package was shot on a Black Magic 6K camera with a Zeiss 50mm macro lens. Several Prism Lens Effects filters were used to create a dreamy look that matched some older film photos of Es’ work. I created hundreds of small paper maze walls out of Bristol board, which took up the largest amount of time in regards to fabrication. I recreated several of Es’ models by designing di-cuts in adobe illustrator, cutting them out of Bristol board and then adhering them back together with rubber cement. Many of the scenes were either lit with 2 GVM light panels or a small projector. I used tracing paper as a projection screen in many of the setups, primarily because Es uses the material throughout her class and because it creates a nice texture in the highlights. The final typography shots were done by building a small maze on a motorized lazy susan, which rotated the structure while I projected Es’ name onto the surfaces.

In spirit of Es’ process, I chose to start all my title graphics in sketch form. This was tremendously helpful in planning the nature of my camera angles and how to represent each lesson through visual metaphor. Many of these sketches were later refined in adobe illustrator for di-cutting the structures from foam-core or Bristol board.

Creative Direction: Lauren Fundora
Producer: Adriana Blancarte
Design, Animation & Cinematography: Peter Clark
Projection Animations: Luke Halls Studio
Class Production & Cinematography: MasterClass