Bose Collins is a creative collective which specialises in design, moving image and sound. Alongside client work they love to collaborate & explore. 1.4 catches up with Nathan Collins about their personal projects.
Is each film in The Flow series and Poor Celine a different experiment in a technique? Could you talk us through please the various techniques used in each of the series?
The Flow series and Poor Céline are studies of motion and materials. Poor Céline was created because we had a desire to combine a live beauty fashion shoot with 3D CG. We came up with the idea over a few beers in Paris having just delivered a huge client project. We’re surrounded by such extreme talents. We all work together on client work most of the time – so every now and then it’s nice to be our own client and explore different techniques. Essentially everything we do is based in creativity. Creativity can be applied to anything. The idea, process and journey determines the end result.
Do you manipulate the images much?
We have a love of both analogue and digital. The Flow series, for example, is raw video footage edited beautifully to great music. We’ll always try and go the analogue route – but sometimes we’re bound by physics so we have to rely on CG.
Any disasters with the experiments?
Not yet!
Will there be just the three pieces in The Flow?
There will be more. We were shooting air bubbles in water last night at 1,000 FPS – we got some amazing footage. It’s for a client project but I’ve got a feeling there will be some more bubbles action coming soon to The Flow series.
To what extent is the process planned out before hand – does it just “flow” with the results you’ve achieved or do you think through how the film is going to develop before hand?
It all starts with ideas and excited chat – then it all flows from there.
We saw that you used the animations at an arts / festival screening? And how do these projects fit in with commercial projects?
David [Vigh] pushed to shoot these pieces for his Takkra performance at Boom Festival. We’d been talking about them for a long time. The ideas started flying when we were looking at slow motion footage of the Holi Festival. It first manifested into Nespresso inky loveliness – when we saw how good the ink in water footage was we all got very excited about shooting more motion experiments. The Boom Festival was a great motivator to actually get busy making them – there’s nothing like a deadline to get things rolling.
Poor Celine is perhaps more literal than the others. How did the idea come about? What were the main challenges of this production and how did you overcome them?
Poor Céline was a joy to create from the beginning spark of the idea to the final polishing in post. It was a true collaboration of like-minded souls. Everyone involved were work colleagues – but also friends. Like good cooking – you can taste the love! Poor Céline won the Fashion Video Festival in Budapest in 2011 & has been shortlisted as part of the Fashion Film Festival in New York next spring.
