The video is a tale of love gained, lost, stolen, and the residual “aftertaste” of the experience. In the same manner of the music, the imagery is haunting. Anyone who has given their heart and then been spurned will easily empathize with the puppets in “Arms.” The skeletal attributes of the puppets give an increased gravitas to the correlation of death and death of a relationship. The often awkward movement of the puppets correlates to the insecurities of amorous relationships and the emotional lack of comfort many experience in matters of the heart. Hong is quite familiar with the production style and schedule of film and TV but not music videos, which is exactly the reason for his accepting the offer. He confirms, “This project was certainly a departure from my usual wheelhouse of live action cinematography. Working with miniature puppets required a reform in my entire approach. It was actually more difficult than I had thought. Obviously, everything was smaller; which meant that it was much more challenging to control the light. A greater level of precision and attention to detail was required. Camera movements had also to be more calculated and handled more delicately. At a smaller scale, any little bump or mistake is multiplied many-fold.” Hong describes, “Aside from the technical challenges, it was great fun coming up with a visual look for this video. The puppets themselves were wooden automatons and had a unique, quirky movement about them. To match this, I went slightly bolder with the camera movements and lighting. I used a lot of colored and moving light cues to add a new dimension to these characters in order to bring them to life within the context that they were in. In this aspect, the scale worked to our benefit; what is normally a small camera move becomes a huge one at this scale. This enabled a level of dynamism that added the right finishing flavor to these already unique puppets.”
Sometimes love can be beautiful. Sometimes love can be all consuming pain. And once in a while…it can be creative. There’s no disputing the fact that music piracy and music sharing changed the music industry and its financial solvency, and thereby changing the music video. This may not have been positive from a financial standpoint, but it is highly beneficial from a creative perspective. Once the days of six-digit music videos were extinct, the remaining practitioners were those who did it for expression and art. To be clear, those who are truly meant to be involved in the creative arts are those who driven to do so by a passion for the medium. Those like Justin Ivan Hong. Hong is an extremely successful cinematographer whose achievements include: REMNANTS (Winner of Best Short Film at the 14th Annual Twin Cities Black Film Festival, Winner of Best Short Film at the Greenwich Village Film Festival 2016, Winner for the Best Socially-Conscious Film at the 15th Annual Urban Mediamakers Film Festival, and Winner for Best Drama Short at the Hollywood Boulevard Film Festival), PLAYBACK (Winner - Best Film at the Creative Video Awards 2010- Singapore,Winner -Best Soundtrack at the Creative Video Awards 2010, Singapore, & Official Selection- Brooklyn Short Film Festival 2016, USA), LOOKING BACK (Nominated – Best Film, Creative Video Awards 2011, Singapore), and CLAIRE’S DAY OUT (Nominated – Best Film, Creative Video Awards 2012, Singapore). Justin has more than established himself with these award-winning productions and yet, he understands the best way to stay fresh and on top of his game is to challenge himself with varied projects. When Timothy Reckhart approached Hong about working with him on the “Arms” video from Tuscon band Sunbones, he recognized the scenario as an opportunity to stretch himself in a different manner. Reckhart is one of the rising stars in the animation world and was Academy Award nominated for his film “Head Over Heels”. He was also one of the main animators on the recent Charlie Kaufman film, “Anomalisa”. Timothy is currently in production of a feature film for Sony Pictures. Pulling from the ethos of the Beach Boys, the Talking Heads, and Vampire Weekend, Sun Bones strives to create music that is accessible but far from ordinary. Reckhart wanted the same sensibility for the “Arms” video and he wanted a cinematographer who could both understand and collaborate with him on the presentation. Reckhart exhuberantly notes, ““For the music video of Sun Bones' "Arms," the band and I decided to take a handmade approach. We wanted the rough feel of Southwestern folk art, especially the calaveras of Day of the Dead. When it came to the cinematography, Justin Hong's approach fit right in with the production design. The camera is hand-operated, with an organic, stream-of-consciousness flow to it that gives the whole video a drifting, dreamlike feel. Justin's flexibility and flair for improvisation was very important, since the video used fire, and fire can behave unpredictably. To really capture the moments we wanted, it was important that Justin could work loose, which he did wonderfully.” The video is a tale of love gained, lost, stolen, and the residual “aftertaste” of the experience. In the same manner of the music, the imagery is haunting. Anyone who has given their heart and then been spurned will easily empathize with the puppets in “Arms.” The skeletal attributes of the puppets give an increased gravitas to the correlation of death and death of a relationship. The often awkward movement of the puppets correlates to the insecurities of amorous relationships and the emotional lack of comfort many experience in matters of the heart. Hong is quite familiar with the production style and schedule of film and TV but not music videos, which is exactly the reason for his accepting the offer. He confirms, “This project was certainly a departure from my usual wheelhouse of live action cinematography. Working with miniature puppets required a reform in my entire approach. It was actually more difficult than I had thought. Obviously, everything was smaller; which meant that it was much more challenging to control the light. A greater level of precision and attention to detail was required. Camera movements had also to be more calculated and handled more delicately. At a smaller scale, any little bump or mistake is multiplied many-fold.” Hong describes, “Aside from the technical challenges, it was great fun coming up with a visual look for this video. The puppets themselves were wooden automatons and had a unique, quirky movement about them. To match this, I went slightly bolder with the camera movements and lighting. I used a lot of colored and moving light cues to add a new dimension to these characters in order to bring them to life within the context that they were in. In this aspect, the scale worked to our benefit; what is normally a small camera move becomes a huge one at this scale. This enabled a level of dynamism that added the right finishing flavor to these already unique puppets.” Just as the song itself is charming and endearing in the lack of “over-production”, the puppetry and look of the film is not an aspect that is jarring to the viewer; rather, it serves to attract and pull one’s attention into the storyline. The lack of expression on the puppets’ faces allows one to focus on the music, investing and trusting in that emotional source. “Arms” serves to command the imagination of those watching the video and the vibrant story of woe displayed. “Arms” creator and director, Timothy Reckhart reveals, “The dirty secret of this video's cinematography is that, even with all the lighting cues, camera movements, and focus pulls, Justin was the lone member of the camera and lighting crew. There’s no possible way we could have done this video without him, literally! He's excellent working with other people, but on this video's budget we weren't able to afford additional crew for him. He managed to operate the camera, build lighting setups, and capture such expressive images without any support from a crew, which is a testament to Justin's natural talent in the various aspects of cinematography.” (https://vimeo.com/timr/sunbones)
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