Devoid Of Yesterday: OFFF Lisbon Titles

Posted by Greg Herman

Devoid Of Yesterday is at it again, this time with the Lisbon OFFF main titles.

Rob Chiu and Chris Hewitt nail this piece out of the park with some of there signature live action, editorial work, type and overall style.  The sound design, by Ben Boysen, lends itself so well to their fluttercut, flash frame editorial style, that the ride becomes almost hypnotic and transiant in nature.

Fish heads and squid guts have never been so kewl!!

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35 Comments

jojo

Nicely done!

machinehead

Tiresome visuals cut to soulless music. I’ll never understand the fascination some designers have with dripping blood splatters and death. What are you trying to say?

del_razor

The Vegan inside of me is crying for the pixels I see.

It’s good, but i’m really sad if they had to kill those creatures just for the art…

itsallmade

nice work/timing but dont like it.. last year was way much better

habitat

I’m going to have to agree with del_razor… I was thinking the exact same thing. I’m no vegan, but it’s kind of sick to think those animals were killed for a title sequence.

eM Otion

I like that version, too:

Engsfors

To be honest, I did expect a whole lot more. I do like it, but I know that this trio can make it better than this. The OFFF NYC titles rocked out this piece in no time.

chrish

Hey guys, its probably worth mentioning that the fish used in the shoot werent harmed during fiming, the cut up fish were pre-cut from the fish market whilst we added some fake blood. The lobsters and crabs were looked after in a nice big bag of ice… but unfortunetly we were quite hungary after filming so we cooked up a big dinner and had friends over:)

Thanks for the post Greg

someofmywork

Really tight, always wonder, chicken and egg like, how they collaborate on the audio/visuals aspect. Rough edit of visuals, rough audio piece to go with it, then back and forth, adding little glitches to perfectly match the edits or edits to perfectly match the sounds!?

Am I missing something with the seafood connection to OFFF?

aktion

Looks and sounds like Rubber Johnny.
And if this were people instead of fish would it be as ‘kewl’?

ocelot

dont get it either… looks and sounds like an autechre video from 2000… maybe its retro again or something…..

gilles

Well, it’s nicely done, but really strange..

Charles Lee

Not that I was on the shoot or like involved in the brainstorming for this :)
but I’m pretty sure Lisbon and Portugal eat a lot of fish.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_cuisine

makhenrow

Nice, reminds me of a good short Physalia Studio from Barcelona.
You can see in:
https://www.physaliastudio.com/proyecto.php?id=4&menu=true

and more works:
https://www.myspace.com/physaliastudio

Sao_Bento

WWDG’s Anamorph + a pinch of Chris Cunningham and a massive heap of DK’s House/Dexter/?

Koji

Boring, boring, boring, more of the same. There is nothing new on this piece, same over the top flashy edit, it’s a tired concept. When is it that someone is going to be a pioneer and break molds and create something really forward, is not what all these festivals are all about?

boatfisher

I say the footage is really well done: but the editing is like amateur cunningham wanna-be style…not nearly glitchy enough for such a glitchy style of editing/musical bg.

Esco1782

From Rob Chiu’s blog:
“Rather than just repeat the previous titles we decided to shoot various sea life in a studio using macro lenses to act as a metaphor for the conference both taking place in Portugal and to have a closer look at the speakers and their way of thinking. ”

Great work guys

frq

eh…im not diggin this as a whole. Good camera work though.

raoul

What a pity!!!

:-(

r3awak3n

I thought it was great. Well shot and edited, I liked the music and loved the concept.

defasten

i really want to like this piece – i like the spin of the subject matter and how it relates to portugal – but i find the sound editing and pace felt kind of random and the sound itself felt too over the top or dramatic for the way it was shot, and for the subject matter.

i didn’t even realise the credits were rolling on each shot because the macro shots were too distracting or perhaps engaging?

i can’t help but compare this to the OFFF NYC piece, which i liked for its more epic feeling, and build up. the credits stood out better to i find. whereas this piece kind of lacked any build up throughout the edit – we get a wide shot at the end of the carnage, which isn’t really *that* gross, considering the way the music was used to make it as if it was so.

some wider and slo-mo shots would have worked well to balance the extreme zoom ins and glitch edits.

nice colour treatment. :)

defasten

and i love the youtube version! it sums up the video well. heh.

mac

So… the idea is:

Cut up fish + blood = OFFF Lisbon ?

Most of the pieces of good motion that we all see, makes us feel a litle bit excited and happy, and drives us to see it again and again.

For me, this is not the case. I was there at OFFF, and I understand the connection with fish and Lisbon, but when the video ended, I had the feeling that most people did not liked it. Especially because the NY titles had a great feeling to it, and this one just makes you feel a litle bit sick (maybe that was the idea) and doesn’t really makes me see it again, sorry guys.

Perhaps another of the reasons people didn’t liked it at OFFF, was the sound volume. Extremely loud! We coudn’t concentrate on the images…

Visually, is a very good work, maybe I would put the type a little bit bigger, but the concept behind it, especially what concerns to Lisbon, doesn’t really connect with it, a city with such a interesting culture and feeling around it.

But that’s just my opinion.

boombaye

I’m a fan of these guy’s work but I just don’t get it this time. Not only did the visuals remind me of the smell of a nasty fish market but the twitchy glitchy style is getting old fast. Big ups on cinematography but I would’ve preferred something that told more of a story.

killa

nice but for me the concept is similar to some demoscene work https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcpLKHDW38I
strange…

absolutlahmi

Weak and forced concept, tired style.
I agree with the comments that this type of work needs to better reflect a bigger idea about what the festival is about, and not feel as self-serving as this piece does.

unsatisfied

firstly. I am a frequenter here at the fabulous Motionographer. I never registered but now I felt I HAD to say something. This piece in my opinion is pure visual and audible laziness at its prime. Rubber Johnny was done years ago. Why revisit this overly abused and dated form of motion/audio work? Chris Cunningham should spank you for this obvious “bite”. Are you not ashamed? Are you not embarrassed of yourselves? YIKES! this SUCKED! I am going to do a piece like this but THIS time I am going to focus and defocus on dirty diapers then at the end i will spread the dirty diapers on a light table. It could represent just what it is. My version would be more literal though ….pure sh*&t !

pablo

I first though it was ‘more of the same’ and old, copying what you said before: Rubber Johnny. But then I couldn’t stop watching the piece (even though it was the same imagery as the beginning) since the story arc is executed brilliantly. The combination of the editing with the camera actions (the focus pulls were awesome) is incredible, those two choices are very well considered to create tension. It made me satisfied after watching the piece, making it complete and finished. Wouldn’t die for it, but I really liked it!

memoryviolation

They been riding on gmunk’s dick for too long.

https://72.10.45.135/ventilate_ca/features/fitc_2008/gmunk_res.html

unsatisfied

THAT GMUNK SHIT IS LOVELY…u are correct. corny bite indeed!!!

hvanzon

wow! those negative comments, it’s like this is the worst piece ever made. I think maybe it wasn’t smart of devoid of yesterday to make the titles for offf twice in a row. Especially when you take in account how good the first was. If you do something like that you have to succeed it, which, to be honest, they didn’t.
But cmon, the camerawork, color correction, grading, editing and use of typo are all good. And so what if it’s been done, there are a lot of good pieces that have been done.
It looks like everybody is trying to overrule eachothers negative comments. Which I think is not fair to the work…

rothermel

i cant agree more. i havnt spoken up on this piece, because i wanted to see how people reacted. it is a well balanced work, for i am sure there was no to very little pay – done on their own time (i assume).

its funny how we can find older influences in work (bass, rand, glazer, etc…) respectable, but as soon as theres a more contemporary influence (gmunk, ipod streaks, ink splat, deer heads, fishguts?) you are considered rubbish.

this style of critque has gotten old and tired. lets discuss the quality of the piece and not what it reminds you of, no one cares otherwise. it just shows you have more time to care about researching whos “ripping” who, rather than doing the piece yourself.

great job guys, i am sure that the nyc titles were hard to top, but regardless the piece is beautiful in its own disgusting way.

Greg

Well said my friend..

oddfew

couldn’t agree more.

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