The recently released video to Flying Lotus’ Tiny Tortures shows actor Elijah Wood dealing with the plight of a missing arm — it combines technical and emotional insight with creativity and has been praised as well as rejected by amputees’ commenting on YouTube. The mastermind behind the project and friend of Steven Ellison (aka Flying Lotus) is David Lewandowski, 28-year-old director & animation artist from California. Lewandowski’s résumé is nothing short of impressive and includes creating the animated graphics, as well as the title sequence, for Joseph Kosinski’s 2010 film, TRON: Legacy; his own short film titled Going To The Store; and most recently, the animated graphics for Oblivion. Currently repped by production company Pulse, his affinities stretch from comedy, music and film to games, Awful Things and a fast food chain called Chick-Fil A. Sarah Claire Picton caught up with Lewandowski for some hyper-real talk about how his career path as a director developed, his favourite childhood toys and a well-kept secret.
image: still from “Tiny Tortures”
Where are you at the moment, what are you working on currently?
I’m in Santa Monica, California. I’m developing a project for Adult Swim and doing a couple of other videos with friends.
Are there specific themes you follow when it comes to choosing the work you take on? I mean I see similarities in TRON: Legacy and Tiny Tortures (gaming, hyper-reality, space/time continuum for example).
Those are two very different projects to me. I spent eight years as an animator for television and film before I started to take directing seriously, so any resemblance of those two pieces is coincidental. I am tremendously proud of both projects. The look and feel of Tiny Tortures is mostly inspired by the work of director Chris Cunningham and I cribbed shots off Tarkovsky’s Stalker (1979) or anime I grew up watching, such as Akira and Evangelion. TRON: Legacy was very much inspired by data-visualization, organic behaviours like Voronoi and my earlier work in motion graphics.
TRON GFX
TRON GFX
Do you think your time in 2010 working on TRON: Legacy was pivotal in the outcome/success of Tiny Tortures? Did it influence your role as a director?
I learned things on TRON: Legacy like how to use VRAY for more realistic renderings, and lots about compositing and visual effects, but I was so burnt out by the end of the project I decided I never really wanted to work that hard for that long again, unless it was for myself. What’s that idiom?
‘If you don’t build your dream, someone will hire you to help you build theirs.’
As far as the outcome of the video, I think TRON: Legacy instilled a lot of trust in me from the record label and the actor. I think it led to a great performance and also attracted friends to donate their time and talent to execute the visual effects.
My behaviour as a director was truly formed by working with two of my former partners, Zach Johnson and Jeffrey Max when I was a part of their filmmaking team called Fatal Farm from 2008 to 2011. I learned things over the three or so years we were together that I never got out of film school — such as a transformation of my work ethic and a new way of looking at things like self-promotion and self-motivation to improve the work. They’re meticulous planners and collaborating with them taught me great habits from creating pre-viz to not being fearless enough to do things differently than absolutely every one of our peers. They’re brilliantly talented and funny, but most importantly, they’re also two of the most industrious guys I’ve ever met.
What was it like working with director Joe Kosinski? What did you learn from him?
He’s fantastic. I’ve done two films now with Joe and I love working with him. He completely enjoys motion graphics and has incredible taste. He respects what I’m trying to do now as a filmmaker and is supportive of that too. I learned a lot from watching him navigate a feature with 1900 vfx shots on his first film…
I did meet Steven Lisberger (the original ’80s TRON director) a couple times during TRON: Legacy, but it was mostly in passing and once on-set during the Legacy re-shoots in LA. Nice guy, also a lover of graphics.
“Tiny Tortures” – montage
image: still from “Tiny Tortures”
Let’s talk about the concept for Tiny Tortures. You had an idea for another song Steven Ellison cut from the album and you have mentioned that it was then adapted for Tiny Tortures. How was it adapted, and do you think you might use that original concept at some point?
I listen to the song over and over and try to hear both my initial instincts about a track and marry it with logistical constraints. For me, sound and image are strongly paired and it nearly broke my heart when Steve once suggested we dub a different song for this video and re-edit it… I don’t know if the original ideas will resurface. Who knows. Maybe for a Captain Murphy (a project of Steven Ellison aka FlyLo) video someday.
Did your friendship with Steven influence the directing of the video, if so how? I mean did you guys bounce ideas along the way, or did you get left to do your own thing?
When I wrote the idea I was at SXSW in Austin, and spending a lot of time reflecting on the things that Steve and I have in common. We both grew up watching anime and weird foreign films — we love beautiful and strange effects animation. I wanted to make something we’d both love. He had some input but it was really gentle — never ironclad notes. He trusted me and would say things like ‘if you’re happy I’m happy’. You can’t ask for more faith than that.
Aside from music or film, what else do you get up to…?
Yeah I’m awfully passionate about my hobbies. They’re great tools to connect with people.
I grew up in a strange place in central Florida and it took many years to feel like a member of any tribe outside my family and tiny group of friends.
I read an interview once with a musician in Alaska which resonated, he said, because there were no shows or friends like him around, his scene was ‘the internet’. In my early teens internet culture became a huge part of my life, discovering music and developing my sense of humour. It helped me connect with people beyond central Florida. Comedy, visual effects, animation, gaming, photography, social psychology…all things I vibe with other people on.
image: still from “Tiny Tortures”
image: still from “Tiny Tortures”
Tiny Tortures is not only dark, but ultimately tragic in its ending: a reflection on life’s harsh reality. And I feel that for one to approach a subject matter like this there would have to be some level of personal experience – or at least an understanding – of the subject/theme in order for it to come across as authentic as it has…
I’m touched it felt so sincere. There was a comment chain on YouTube from an amputee who felt like I addressed phantom limb and survivor’s guilt in a delicate and interesting way. I was pleased to hear that.
Your initial brief that you gave to Ben Mauro – who did the concept art for the video – included, among other things, toys and model airplanes. What was your favourite toy as a kid and did you fly model airplanes?
I never got to fly model airplanes, but I had loads of toys. The first thing I remember was a flower that danced to music – and early video games on the NES. I had all of the TMNT stuff but the first toy craze I can remember roping my parents into was the Jurassic Park stuff. Getting the compound/command centre kit for Christmas blew my mind.
I always wanted to get into remote planes and models, these days I’m more into those quadrocopters. I’m kind of regretting not putting any POGS, nerf guns, M:TG cards (Magic: The Gathering) or ‘koosh balls’ in the video now…
There’s more than one reference to baseball. Was this a big part of your childhood?
I was a tennis guy growing up. I haven’t played in ages though. The baseball stuff was to represent a large part of this kid’s life and even past that was taken away when he lost his arm. It felt universal to me.
In the original TRON, the producers added Easter eggs in the scene where Tron and Ram escape from the Light Cycle arena into the system. Did this – maybe during close study back in 2010 for your work on TRON: Legacy – spark the idea to use eggs for the formation of the telekinetic arm?
There are a couple things that play in the background of Tiny Tortures… There’s far far more hidden inside TRON: Legacy by my team and I… Not sure if any of them made it into Oblivion, I haven’t seen a cut yet.
image: still from “Tiny Tortures”
“Tiny Tortures” – Montage
The aesthetic of the telekinetic arm forming seems extremely natural. How long did it take you and your DP, Christian Sprenger, to achieve this? And how did you get from vinegar, egg yolk, hand sanitizer and food colouring to this incredible animated formation!? A little gross, but genius!
In pre-production we did very valuable round camera and lighting tests. We experimented with the LED sources and also played around with using a 2″ Kino Flo bulb, masked off with black gaff tape and a tiny slice, cut open across the front of the bulb to create a beautiful thin light source, which created an interesting catch light in the eyes. This ‘look development phase’ proved to be critical in hitting the low-light exposures we targeted, and went a long way in getting us 80-90% of the way to the aesthetic feeling we wanted.
I also do a lot of technical motion tests to show the team, but also to discover the workflow for the project. I shot a test in my kitchen and did some object captures of my bicep and forearm and tried to blend ambient floating animation smoothly into performance capture. The animation team and I had some experience doing object capture from the last video we did together for Friendly Fires. I found a good way to do it that mimicked that ‘Akira wire-arm formation’ – a reference I loved – and it was rolled into production with an LED arm brace for capture.
The organic macro photography came from seeing a friend’s tests on his Flickr and seeing some of the effects from the fountain that were achieved with microphotography. We see so little of it in the final video that I felt like we could have made a whole second video of just that overdose-trip world featuring what we shot…
Do you still eat eggs?
I eat eggs constantly. Great over-hard on burgers and I’m a spinach omelette junkie.
‘Tiny Tortures’ Montage
‘Tiny Tortures’ Montage
From human to technical…Were there any less-obvious obstacles that came up in the video?
Tracking was a big issue in the first few weeks of post production. We blew about three weeks tracking using a piece of software that we all knew, and in a panic we ditched it, bought a new package, and the entire team did a crash learning session to switch to Pftrack. In about 48 hours we were off and away nailing shots that seem impossible with the other software…
I guess the story obstacle is noteworthy. Originally there was a much stronger narrative in the video – an entire subplot was edited out. I reflected on that great quote.
I’m paraphrasing here but ‘I’d rather be confused for 10 minutes than bored for 10 seconds’. It felt like our story was most fascinating and beautiful without trying to cram a narrative in three minutes, so we chose a more abstract route which worked for me.
Some of the imagery gets lost – it truly is so beautiful. What are some of your favourite details?
The wilted dead flowers on his desk. There were several shots of photos of his dead girlfriend and letters from her that got cut which I miss. Also cut were a couple of shots of cables combining and wrapping around each other that are just purely shots for animators.
In the darkening of the colour grade I think you can’t quite see a lot of what makes the arm up… there really was a lot of thought that went into the design, but ultimately I’m happy it exists in the shadows. The practical stump at the end has a bunch of utensils and a sports medallion crammed up into it, which I loved and found pretty amusing, though it doesn’t quite read on-screen.
The pill box in the beginning of the video – the compartment that is open has the letter W on it. Was this a Wednesday that the overdose took place on?
The idea of an overdose happening in the middle of the night and someone abusing their dosage would mean he’s taking pills out of order. There’s no significance to that open compartment or the day.
‘Tiny Tortures’ Montage
image: still from “Tiny Tortures”
For a brief second you can see a phone (think it’s an iPhone?) flying across the room. The time on it is 7:52, is that significant?
The numbers aren’t significant, the photo is of him and his deceased girlfriend.
What inspired that thick oily-looking whirlwind of colours? Have you experienced synesthesia?
No… Synesthesia is one of those things like lucid dreaming — you could just get lost in researching it because it’s so endlessly interesting.
You were able to do a test shoot before, what were some of the most important things you learnt during that process?
When you’re shooting in the single-digit foot-candle range, the lighting is very delicate. Originally on-set we were going to drop in ND filters to get a feel for what the video would look like once it was graded way down, and then light it ‘properly’ — much brighter to get a brighter exposure. Instead, our tests encouraged us to shoot this thing as dark as possible to get us as close to the final desired look as we could on-set. The test shoot allowed us time to experiment and play with different light sources and looks to really nail it, something you’d never normally get to do on a music video timeline.
“Tiny Tortures” – Montage
“Tiny Tortures” – Montage
What five books have changed your life?
Damn these are some probing questions. I think a list of books is difficult and revealing. ‘life changing’ might be bit of a misnomer but lets go with…
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
I read that during Tron and it changed the way I felt about creativity and concentration. I re-read my highlights from it every now and again. Check out his TED talk and then grab the book.
Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury from my youth. One of my favourites and the first sci-fi I gravitated to. Bit pedestrian, but it was an important spark in the genre for me.
My Father’s Dragon was my favourite book as a young child, I’ve read it over a 100 times. Really strong theme and great illustrations. Very impactful on my youth.
I know Malcolm Gladwell gets criticized sometimes but I really liked Outliers. (Blink is also good, by him.) It changed the way I felt about success a few years ago and highlights that just because something is difficult, doesn’t mean you’re bad at it.
Isn’t it funny, when people think that ‘overnight success’ isn’t the result of years of painful and difficult work?
If you haven’t read Akira, go get the colour edition. It’s the most cinematic comic I’ve ever read – absolutely a joy and I’m afraid we’ll never see anything else like it.
Stewart Lee’s first book for Faber, How I Escaped My Certain Fate. Annotations of three stand-up specials are fantastic if you’re a fan interested in the formation of material and nuance of performance – or even the ethics and lessons of being a performer for 25 years. I find myself reflecting on my highlights often, his attitude about making a living as a working artist did transform the way I live and think about work.
Talking about books, when I was a kid I used to obsess over my mom’s ridiculous book on baby names and their meanings. I found it in a box last night, and looked up your name. It means Beloved. Do you think this is an apt description? How would you describe yourself?
Is this an interview or a psych profile?? I think I used to blindly believe it as a child, as an adult I try to fulfil the meaning and be a lovable person? I like to think of myself as a kind and hard-working guy trying to overwrite and cope with some of the trauma from my youth in a healthy way with art.
Who makes you laugh these days?
Sincerity, errors. Nonsense. Stuff like this:
RX – Bumble from Nightshifters on Vimeo.
I do this little art thing with my buddy Max called Surprise.ly. It’s a tool to strip all context from web content to remove a response bias from the recipient. So things like view count, ratings, top comment, video titles, related videos, length – all of these prime you to respond to the video. I think the power of removing all of that can be incredible and hilarious. You can also re-contextualize videos by start/stopping them at certain times, and dubbing them with different audio from another video. We use it daily. You can make your own, too.
Examples of our favourites: http://www.twitter.com/surprisely
http://surprise.ly/v/?2mbjp5de3kw:KH9HOensHDM:1:33:25:61:0:0:0:100
http://surprise.ly/v/?zj7q9lBXkvA:0:0:0:100
http://surprise.ly/v/?GuOBsih6Os0:f6jGtVChdTM:126:0:157:0:1:0:0:100
http://surprise.ly/v/?al7t8eGsL5U:4:0:1:100
http://surprise.ly/v/?rt4p9A-U4Ko:5:0:1:100
http://surprise.ly/v/?omN1Vu_4nDI:33:40:0:80
What is your favourite silent film?
I like silent animation, early stuff like Winsor McKay or guys like Norman McLaren. Hard not to sound pretentious and aloof talking about silent films, I don’t watch many.
As someone who ‘prefers surrealism’, what is the most surreal moment you have experienced so far in life?
Maybe the most surreal in a literal sense, was taking LSD in a hot spring resort in Karuizawa, Japan. It was the first time I’d taken a psychedelic of any kind and I took too much – I tripped for like 12 hours. It was the most galactic and profound experience I’ve ever had. That experience was very important to me, although I don’t normally take drugs or drink heavily.
Tell me one thing that most people don’t know about you?
I was a child actor for several years and believe I have successfully scrubbed every last remnant of that from the internet. All that remains are co-stars’ memories and a wall of VHS tapes at my mom’s house…
What three tips would you give a young director going into shooting a music video?
Not so sure I’m qualified to be giving out that sort of advice…
Work hard, be a kind person. Try to help other people do their projects, you’ll learn something and they’ll often reward you somehow. Be passionate. People are attracted to passion, I think it’s the only thing they’re really attracted to. Most people want to see someone fulfill a dream and be a part of it.
Flying Lotus “Tiny Tortures” Process montage from dlew on Vimeo.
images: David Lewandowski, stills from Tiny Tortures music video, stills from Tiny Tortures Montage
interview: sarah claire picton