Aya Atoui - A Poet of Portraits

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then the ones by Aya Atoui make for epic, gentle visual sonnets. I worked with this young artist to create images introducing the new single and music video (gayathrimusic.com) and I am in utter fascination with her aesthetic, the grace of her work and her own shining creative vision. 

When I asked her about her very individualistic approach to her art she said; "it's always difficult for me to speak about my process because the work goes through different kinds of execution. When I shoot an image I enjoy projecting it onto a surface and drawing over it. Sometimes I like to project images on inanimate or animate objects. Could be trees, sand, windows...the projections opened doors to superimposition, the placement of an image or video on top of an already existing image or video. It's usually more about the process than the end result for me." 

Taking cue from lyrics of some of my songs, she conjured up visual ideas that captures the music, its sentiment and possesses a character of its own. Being a part of this process is something I've deeply enjoyed. There's definitely more to come.  

The gorgeous green jacket is from the lovely Chickpeas Vintage in dubai (www.xoxochickpeas.com). Check out and buy their beautiful clothes, accessories and overall awesomeness. Special thanks to Maya & Amira @ Chickpeas who supported me during the making of this video by providing the clothes for it! 

A glimpse from the shoot. 

Champion of Broken Hearts - The Official Music Video

So here is the brainchild that was being painfully yet rewardingly mid-wived over the last few months.  Every thing from recording and getting this single produced (by the immensely talented Reiner Erlings) or getting this video directed, edited and ready for release (all thanks to the brilliant Mrinal B) has all been in a way a serendipitous experience. Nothing else seemed to work except the seemingly fated. Every other idea, sparked, proposed a possibility but eventually fell by the wayside. And after a lot of brainstorming, brain-trying conversations and discussions, what I am left with is an incredible creative experience where people became committed not just involved, every detail was tended to building an energy web that we all delighted in over the two days of shoot in Bombay. And of course the single and the video itself that has sunk in to my very being like one would their favourite chair.
My heartfelt thank yous to all who've made this happen and took a chance on me. I am forever grateful.

Crew
Director / Editor: Mrinal B 
DOP: Akshay Rajput
Principal Photography: Sanjay Chawda
Jimmy Jib Operator: Qutab
Focus Puller: Bhaskar
Art Direction: Parichit Paralkar
Choreography: Ajay Shivan
Line Producer: Sumit Irani
Stylists: Nici & Laja
On-Set Stylist: Setu Shah
Makeup Artist: Jesse Khan 

Cast:
Leading Lady: Gayathri 
Ensemble of Dancers: Dev, Keith, Deenu, Amol, Arjun, Vernon

Song Produced & Mixed by: Reiner Erlings

http://gayathrimusic.com

Director's Notes

Excerpts from a magazine interview with Mrinal B - Director of the music video for my upcoming single, 'Champion of Broken Hearts' (set to release in November,) where he talks about the creative vision and the execution of an epic theme and storyboard. 

At First Listen: 
"From the first time I heard the song, it was very obvious to me that visually, it demanded a certain grandeur and scale that befitted the arrangement of the song and its dramatic flair. When Gayathri and I first started to discuss the vision for the song, her idea, which has now become emblematic of that grand scale free-spiritedness of the song, was dance and exuberant, strong choreography. Although my initial vision for the video was to keep things really stylized and in a zone that didn't involve dance, her referencing of broadway, and old-worldly cinematic expression of song became very fascinating and the trail between her ideas and the way the song is composed, arranged and produced became very clear. So for me, to translate that style and scale of story-telling, visually, became my mission and my role." 


Technically Speaking
Primarily the video has Gayathri who is the protagonist playing the character of the 'Champion of Broken Hearts', accompanied by dancers who are also characters in the context, against which the video is set. Although styled and defined to the tee, these characters all serve the purpose of bringing to light the passionate, central theme and character of the song, and her powerful, self-satirizing, comedic struggle with heartbreak. There were a thousand ways to tell this story, be it setting it in the grandest of locations or having a huge cast, which the song can easily pull off, but since we were working within a constrained budget, considering that Gayathri is an independent artist supporting herself, we decided to up the technical ante, so to speak. We're using a combination of sweeping wide-screen shots, a dramatic backdrop, gorgeous formation choreography and lots of action within the frames to convey the message of the story. Although I will be directing this video and concept, there is a whole crew that is making this come to life. The choreographer has created a hybrid genre of dance inspired by the song, combining the worlds of broadway, contemporary & jazz styles with that of combative, warfare-style movements. The styling department are an industrious and creative lot, completely engrossed in detailing these characters and most importantly, have brought Gayathri's character to life through careful and confident styling. The project and its outcome will purely reflect an incredible jamming of minds." 


A huge thank you to Mrinal and the whole crew, who are currently working so hard on the project. This video has faced more than a few obstacles, be it a canceling of shoot two days before the date it was scheduled for, Union/Production issues or funny yet tiresome language barriers. This reboot has been a dream so far. Hurrah for Bombay and its infinite sources of respite. 

The Trifecta Conquered: Props, Characters & Costumes.

What we found

As the last leg of prep for the video begins, I'm delighted to see all the pieces come together; it almost feels like a magnetic nucleus attracting all these different components to itself to form a perfect little organism of its own.

With the city turning out to be a treasure trove of costumers, tailors, antique prop shops and fabric stores, I've found that with a big ol' smile and some broken tamil, it's become easier to keep things within budget whilst getting exactly what I want. With a brilliant crew toiling away on this project (a lot more on the crew in the next post) I feel super geared and psyched for shoot day: Monday the 29th of August. 

Tailoring the Look

Driving the point home with the tailor in three languages - Tamil, English & Tanglish.

Tailors trying not to laugh at my sketches and tamil.

This place took three days to track down. Felt like one of those models on ANTM that don't make the go-see cuz they're so lost. But when we found it, boy was it worth the hunt. More images of the costumes in the next post.

hehe.

Sketching out characters' costumes & finding fabric swatches.

Prop-Shop-Stop: I realize it looks like a big junkyard but this place was a find and a half. With a bit of crawling under furniture, standing on chairs and coughing and sneezing we found our little family of props.   

Might buy one of these babies for myself. Renting these just isn't good enough.

Vintage Fanfare.

The Big-ticket Find. Not a single key works but looks pretty damn good! 

All Photos courtesy of Ekta Saran, my beloved Behind-the-Scenes Co-ordinator. 

With Dance rehearsals in full-swing, it is as exciting as it is nerve-wracking. Let the footloose-ing begin! Anddddd Jazz Hands! 

Creative Exile

The Music Video That will be 
So for the last 10 days, I've been stationed in the South of India, doing all the leg work for my first music video. Constantly learning from my extremely creative visual wizard director and co-conceptualizer of the video, Mrinal, everyday has been as fulfilling as writing the song itself. With the video being a dramatic, vivid broadway style representation of the song, Champion of Broken Hearts, I've been working on designing the characters that inhabit the world, building their backstories, and their relation to the character that I will be portraying - the champion of broken hearts - the protagonist. Subsequently, defining and designing the look of the space that all the shenanigans take place at, has been such a cool creative challenge. 
My dear friend Ekta, photographer, writer, story teller and fellow creative delinquent, who arrived late last night, early this morning, to support me on this project, will be documenting this whole process to create the behind the scenes featurette not just for the single, but for posterity too. 
As the process of propping starts tomorrow, I'm mad excited to source out the props from the prop-shops that the thriving film and theatre industry have gone time and time to populate their stages and screens.  
A few of my favourite things on the list, to be sourced:

BARE - A Picture Project. 
This is an ongoing project that simply documents faces that tell me a story or inspire me in a certain way. The first of this series, this is the face of Farida Ahmed, a face that, to me, represents a sense of solemnity, a face that holds within it the silence of a quiet night of hard work and the bitter sweet joy of sacrifice. A face that could but won't give a lot away, a lot of the time. A face that has etched itself in my mind. 

My Current Creative Fix:
The Artist's Way - Julia Cameron: This brilliant soul-starting book is for anyone who are or daydream about being a creative artist in any way. The book guides you through a spiritual exorcism of your doubts and the things that hold you back in your journey in creativity as a purpose. Thanks to one of my dearest friends, Tiffany, who introduced me to this book, I have completely given in to the book and the engaging words of Julia Cameron and week by week it dazzles me and evokes a deep sense of thought and creative duty. 


Getting My Mind-Blown By:
The Genius of Bach: Picture yourself waltzing with the person you love the most in a maze within an orchard of apple trees, fragrant flowers, dancing up trees, trapezing from bark to bark, where every dried leaf you step on crunches in rhythm and the air is the perfectly warm and teasingly cool, where you never run out of breath and your skin and your whole body feels sensitive, bare, feeling every pulse, hearing every sound, reveling in the now-ness of life, where every beautiful indescribable emotion rises within you, occupies every cell within your body till it becomes all you are and all you want to be. That is the music of Bach. Swallowing me whole. 


    

Singing on Screen - Part 1

The first of a series of indulgent love letters to some of my most beloved actors belting it out in film.


Audrey in Breakfast Tiffanys - Henry Mancini's Moon River




Julie Delpy's Disarming Waltz




John Cussack & Peter Fucking Frampton - Oh Yeah!




This is the definition of my dream relationship. One of the best closing scenes ever. 

Quint Arts Program - The Kickoff - Quint @ theFridge

As Curator of the Quint Arts Program, I'm ecstatic to report that our first showcase got off to a great start, taking all the steps we can towards running our own little creative mad house. 

How does the Quint Arts Program work? 

Every month we at Quint will pick artists from different mediums to collaborate with each other on a project. the resources for this project will be arranged for by quint and the creative consequences of these collaborations will culminate in a showcase/exhibit at the reputed Fridge Dubai, our wonderful partners in this endeavour. Everything from start to finish of this collaboration will be documented online and in the print version of the magazine. 

"We" is better than "Me"

geared towards providing resources and avenues for visual and performing artists & the creative proletariat on a whole, this program is designed to encourage the cross-pollination between various forms of art to create something authentic and unique. Working on the simple principle of "two minds are better than one" one of our goals is to, in our own little way, revolutionize the way the arts are funded in the UAE. To that End:

The Annual Quint Artist Development Grant 

This is the tangible amalgam of the various showcase events and auctions held through through the program. The money that is collected at the door at every one of our showcase events, goes directly towards fattening up this grant. All artists from the region are eligible for this grant and procedures for application, deadlines & review will be updated very soon. In July of 2012, Quint will announce the final roster of artists whose creative proposals will be realized by enriching these projects with all the resources it demands, be it money, raw material, manpower, press or a place to work. 

Most importantly, the program & grant is to encourage artists to create fearlessly and the beholders of their work to think deeply. Great art is never silent and can’t be ignored...we’re just giving it a head-start. 

For more information, for the time being feel free to drop me a line on subwaymusician@gmail.com. 

For those who aren't big on reading, here's a glimpse of the night that was & the nights that will be. The First Edition was a collaboration between the wildly talented Hamdan Abri, the effortless multi-instrumentalist Reiner Erlings and myself. The music from the night was recorded and will be put online as a podcast very soon. The night also saw some amazing original art by Denise Kynd, Victoria Viray & Nargis Dhirani. 

A special thanks to the wonderful team at the Frigde Dubai, Matrix who handled all our sound and to all who came and showed their support. 

Movement - An Inside Look : Trailer

A little teaser of the Making of 'Movement' Video Series.


This series will document the behind the scenes, rehearsals and pre-production stages of the concert.
Plenty of footage to follow. 

Movement on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Movement-A-Creative-Collaboration/179088195465012?ref=ts

Old-School Gold. Men in suits & hats. Live recordings and 5 part harmonies. Fire up the DeLorean!

Lambert from Peter on Vimeo.

Behind the Scenes - The Fridge Concert Series -23rd May

rehearsal at Reiners' 

test runs at the fridge

Prepping for a performance at The Fridge on the 23rd May, Monday at 7:30 P.M. I am 

extremely grateful to be working with some amazing collaborators and creative minds.

The Collaboratory: 

Reiner Erlings - Piano, Live Programming

Gorgin Asadi - Keys 

Kaveh Kashani - Bass, Acoustic Guitar

Mehdi Gr - Electric Guitar 

Noush Like Sploosh - Vocals, Production & Lighting Design 

Faye Roberts  - Vocals 

Denise Kynd - Costume Design

Defined by the voice as an instrument, this multi-disciplinary performance will be a showcase of my music which also happens to be the music of Movement, performed with a menagerie of musicians featuring soaring orchestral sweeps, avant-garde electronic percussion whilst also illustrating a modern take on cathedral singing, with one of the songs, named 'Desperate Times,' where along with my lovely guest vocalists Noush & Faye, I will be performing an a capella piece. 

The visual world of the show will feature a projection-based set installation designed and constructed in collaboration with trans-media artist Noush Like Sploosh, which will root the sounds & the sights in the meeting place of the real & the surreal. 

Set List: 

• 17 Moles
• Eager Arms Featuring E.Y.E 
• Cocoon 
• Desperate Times ft Noush & Faye 
• Champion of Broken Hearts
• Morning Raag
• Anbe
• Midnight Cry ft E.Y.E

for more info: http://www.facebook.com/event.phpeid=211450352223107&ref=ts

Movement Residency - The Doo Whop Prop Shop

Two chicks with Power Tools 

For the last week and for the next ten days, the head of production design of Movement, Noush and myself are stationed at the jam jar doing a residency where we'll be hand-crafting and building sonic props that will be a creative component of the show. I will be documenting our progress in this "ginormous multiverse of Analog Mechnics" and to that end...here goes. 

setting up shop.

my humble sketch table

Sketches of some of the instruments: 
The Shoe Instrument Series 
(percussive sonic props)
This series is designed mainly for the 24 piece choir whose role, besides choral support is also using these sonic props to add those key sound design elements. When every shoe, with different attachements is played at the same time, the sound evoked would be of a whole hybrid drum kit. The series includes:
a)two-tone sole: producing treble and bass.
b) atom-size cymbals: producing the intricate sounds of the cymbal by creating an attachment that will rest on the body of the shoe.
c)the rake: to create the sound of a jazz snare, this attachment protrudes from the head of the shoe to create a brush drum sound.




The PVC Pipe Semi-Tone Vibraphone

 

(Tonal Sonic Prop) 

A sketch of the instrument that is going to be built with PVC pipes to create a vibraphone that will incorporate semi-tones

Noush & I geeking out over concepts

girl's night out

Pecha Kucha & New Projects

Pecha Kucha - 19th Jan, 2011
First time presenting at Pecha Kucha and what a hoot it was! Presenters spoke about everything from initiatives in art, to the current state of the music business, the iconic monobloc chair, the art of sketching, the unique dubai benches project and very creative photography projects.


The Presenters:
Omar Jaramillo Traverso, an architect, an artist and part of the Urban Sketchers network - www.omar-jaramillo.de andwww.flickr.com/photos/omarpaint
Arnaud Humbert - Photographer - www.arnaudhumbert.com
Joshua F. Williams - Music producer, recording engineer and mixer - myspace.com/joshuawilliams , http://twitter.com/#!/record_pro
Mark Pilkington, a professor at the American University of Sharjah and a photographer - mpilkington @ aus.edu
Laura Egerton from Art Dubai/ Abraaj Capital Art Prize - www.artdubai.ae
Melina Mitri - PR & Marketing Exec. from funky upscale boutique S*uce - http://sauceloves.com/benches/, http://www.shopatsauce.com/
Hattie Bowering -  http://twitter.com/#!/hattiebowering
Jill Hoyle - Tashkeel - www.tashkeel.org
Gayathri Krishnan and Reiner Erlings (Producer/Songwriter and the Co-Musical Director of Movement) - http://twitter.com/#!
/thenightreiner
http://twitter.com/#!/GayathriMuses
(visit http://www.theculturist.com/home/pecha-kucha-dubai-on-19th-jan-2011.html for a detailed insight into all the presentations)


The day of...

A Few Glimpses of the Presentation Slides: Created by Reiner Erlings and Gayathri Krishnan
Video of the presentation is posted on the sidebar on the right.

The Dubai Benches Project: 

The best books read, the sweetest letters written, the smallest kisses planted, the biggest laughs laughed, have all happened on benches in various corners of the world. Whether we use it as a place to relax as you watch your kids play with bubbles, profess your love, sketch a stranger, drink some hot chocolate while you wait for the bus or just sit down to tie your shoe laces, the bench always cuts you some slack and gives you a moment. 


Why all the romanticizing of the bench? Well, popular shopping haunt S*uce are launching their latest community initiative, The Dubai Benches Project. It aims to increase the number of benches in Dubai so that people here can celebrate the stories told, the lives lived and the moments shared on benches.


How quaint and charming is that?! When I heard about this project from Melina and got some more info on it through her quirky presentation at Pecha Kucha last night, I immediately signed up to contribute to the cause. Different ways of contributing: Send in - 

1.       Photos  of your favourite bench (in Dubai or anywhere else in the world) and why you
         like it.
2.       Photos of a candid moment caught on a bench
3.       Photos of a space or area in Dubai where there should be a bench but isn’t.. (by the sea,     
         in a mall, in a park, by the road etc.)
4.       Any story or anecdote about something that happened on a bench
5.       Anything wonderful or inspirational like a sketch of a bench, a quote, a poem  … etc


The Contribution: 
As basic as a bench,  I'm working on a video that'll have me playing a song on my favourite bench in Dubai. 


Upcoming posts: 
Working on a duet with Tim Hassall in his home studio, Building props for a photo shoot on a shoe-string budget and Building a new and improved press kit.