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Making the cinnamon girl video http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/11-01-2004/0002349113&EDATE=
MINNEAPOLIS, Nov. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Leave it to a talented post-production editor and FLAME artist working with 75 different hand-painted watercolors for a two-second explosion to get the job done right in the controversial new Prince music video, "Cinnamon Girl." Scott Wenner of Jagged Edge, who usually works with the special effects computer program known as FLAME for commercial spots, TV programming and corporate image pieces, relied on his artistic sensibility and painterly training to deliver a multitude of watercolor paintings for a critical moment in the video when a young, alienated Arab- American Muslim girl appears to detonate a bomb in an airport. Or does she? The video never makes it clear if she actually commits the act, or is just imagining it. The video can be watched at http://launch.yahoo.com . New Zealand actress Keisha Castle-Hughes (Whale Rider) plays the young girl in a graphically moody video directed and produced by Harder-Fuller Film that is generating political comment and fanning controversy around the world for its suicide bomber content. But the story behind the images is just as aesthetically compelling as the heat about the finished Prince piece, which is also entirely edited by Jagged Edge's Jolynn Garnes, working with director Phil Harder. According to Wenner, who also painted 10 watercolor backgrounds for the performance part of the video with Prince and band and augmented them with smoke, light and movement, the explosion segment could not be satisfactorily rendered through mere animation. That's when he put to work his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Minnesota and his years as an abstract painter (when he isn't locked in an editing suite). "Even though the actual explosion screen time is only two-seconds, I decided that the look of the entire video had to be the same throughout, so when we came to the bomb sequence, we discovered that the flurry of water- color paintings were more effective," Wenner says. Working nonstop with a fellow painter Erin Goedtel, the two created 75 explosive watercolors tinged in orange, gray and other colors, then composited the paintings and finally animated the short sequence for its dramatic visual effect. "In all, that part of the process took two days," he explains, "but the whole video -- from discussing it with the director, Phil Harder, to completing the project -- took two solid weeks. In reading the treatment, I knew if would be difficult to execute -- and controversial." As to commenting on the storyline, Jagged Edge founder and editor, Dan Jagunich, simply notes, "Let's just say that the storyline is as ambiguous as Scott's beautifully blurred watercolors to give Prince fans and others a new window into Prince's work." About Jagged Edge Created in 1997 by Dan Jagunich, Jagged Edge has built a young, hip, highly skilled and imaginative in-house team that has moved effortlessly from shaping the critically celebrated Paul Westerberg rock doc "Come Feel Me Tremble" to innovatively editing and putting the final coat of gloss on weekly HGTV programming like "Decorating Cents," "Weekend Handyman" and others. At Jagged Edge, cable television series, advertising spots, and big-brand retail in-store and imaging pieces share the same Jagged Edge technical eloquence and aesthetic finesse as its work for documentary rock films and music videos. Exceptional use of FLAME, Avid editing and graphic design are all engaged by what Chris Barry of Best Buy's Yellow Tag division notes is "an extremely talented staff that brings creativity to everything they do." The company recently hired Rich "Let's Bowl" Kronfeld to head its television programming development department, in what may be a first in the post-production industry. |
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