Cinematic Toys

Artoo, originally uploaded by Thorsten Becker.

The other day I realized that while this blog already has several posts there hasn’t been any true starting post, the one that kicks things off and explains what it’ll be all about. Part of the reason why that’s missing is that this blog has gone through several iterations over the past four years. Initially I used this space to promote a CD I had produced called Infiltrator – A Musicnovel, an album compiled of cinematic music composed by me in conjunction with a story I was working on. I had a lot of fun putting it together, I sent it out to various radio stations and magazines/blogs/zines for review and got some nice feedback and airplay and one of the tracks even made 3rd place in the Dance Music category of the 14th Billboard World Song Contest a few years back. Two tracks also ended up on a compilation CD. And while I am still working on the story and am also producing a follow-up album I felt that a blog wasn’t the right place and format for what I wanted to do with it, so I moved on to something else.

I’ve always been an avid photographer. As a kid I frequently brought a camera around with me to snap shots of whatever sparked my interest, usually nature, animals and architecture. I never had any particular subject I focused on until I started putting my photos on Flickr. Having worked as a graphic designer for several years and possessing a good grip on photo editing I decided to give my images a certain character and style. Since I enjoy movies very much (learning lines and all) and being interested in cinematography I started experimenting with different editing techniques to add a cinematic feel to my images. This in turn inspired me to write various short stories. I decided to re-purpose my blog so that I could share them and named it Fabula:Brevis (meaning “short story” in Latin). I enjoyed it, I got some nice responses but I began developing storylines that I felt could be “more,” that I’d rather keep offline for future endeavors. In addition I hit a snag – going out and taking photos confines one to what’s there. I eventually had stories in my mind that I couldn’t find any matching pictures for. I felt a bit stuck.

In 2007 I came across Cédric Delsaux‘s work in Star Wars Insider 92 (February 2007). Cédric takes pictures of Star Wars statues and larger scale figures, compositing them into Parisian urban environments. I don’t have the issue in front of me but I remember reading that he brings all the figures with him on site, photographs them to get the light right, then photographs the scene itself and later on combines it all in scale for a more realistic and dramatic effect. I liked his approach and it gave me some ideas. So I began collecting action figures of all sizes that I could use in my own photos. But instead of simply taking toy shots I wanted to create something that could be mistaken, at first glance, for a scene from a movie. My earliest attempts date back to April 2007 and to my surprise my very first photo, this one of Darth Vader, was included right then, right there in Wire.com’s Star War’s 30th Anniversary special. In May 2010 I decide to close Fabula:Brevis for good. I extracted all those stories that were based on and accompanied by cinematic style toy photos and created Cinematic Toys.

Not being content with simply having a showcase of my own work I also began searching Flickr for other toy photographers that have a similar approach. Hence I created a companion Flirck group, also called Cinematic Toys. As of time of writing it is still small but already filled with great work. Have a look at the sidebar and you’ll see the latest additions under Flickr Group. There’s also a corresponding gallery here, a rotating selection of my personal favorites from that group. It’s a pleasure to see such talented photographers, I am very impressed with their work and more than happy to share their work for all to see. And of course I am always on the lookout on Flickr for photos and photographers to invite to my group. So if you take cinematic toy shots as well and I haven’t found you yet just drop me a note, I’ll be more than happy to take a look.

And that’s the story of how Cinematic Toys came about. It’s certainly been a refinement process over the years but one that has led me to a very enjoyable as well as inspirational past time activity. I hope you enjoy your visit and would appreciate your return, support, suggestions and comments.

PS: I chose a picture of R2D2 for this post for a specific reason: he keeps on going, no matter what and eventually accomplishes what he set out to do. That’s a good lesson for anyone creative. If you have an idea but haven’t quit nailed it yet keep at it, be persistent, eventually you’ll figure it out.