…except in a knife fight

A Jason Wishnow snapshot.

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Four weeks ago, at the opening of our music video exhibition, Spectacle: The Music Video at the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati, we were fortunate to share our opening with the talented painter Dasha Shiskin. That intense week of togetherness forged a new friendship and one that I am happy to say continues here at home with her upcoming new exhibit, “S INT N HO” at Susanne Vielmetter in Culver City on April 7.

You will not want to miss her amazing new work and the talent that lies beneath. See you Saturday!

Dasha Shiskin’s “S INT N HO”
April 7 - May 12, 2012
Opening reception is from 6-8pm
SUSANNE VIELMETTER LOS ANGELES PROJECTS
6006 Washington Blvd
Culver City, CA 90232

Me and Dasha at Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati

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A Jason Wishnow snapshot

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PES makes smart and funny stop-motion animated films. His 2008 film Western Spaghetti, a mouth-watering cooking lesson with non-food ingredients is a Flux favorite. Today PES revisits the kitchen with his latest lesson, a “how to” in making guacamole with household objects. Yum!

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Flux is proud to debut Spectacle: The Music Video, our big museum exhibition that looks at the music video as an art form of our time.

March 3-September 3, 2012

Spectacle: The Music Video
Contemporary Arts Center
Cincinnati

Hours: 10 am – 9 pm (FREE after 5 pm) on Monday; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday - Friday; 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday; and closed on Tuesday.

For more information visit the Contemporary Arts Center site.

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A Jason Wishnow snapshot

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• Name: Wrap Party
• Date: Sunday August 7th, 2011
• Location: Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, Los Angeles
• Who was there: Jason Reitman, Craig Stecyk, Neck Face, MOCA Director Jeffrey Deitch, Robbie Conal, Ty Evans, Alex Stapleton, Estevan Oriol, Aaron Rose, Chaz Bojorquez, Cat Solen, Wyatt Troll, Roger Gastman, Todd Cole, Tobin Yelland and many more
• What was served: Kogi tacos (of course)

To celebrate the success and closing of MOCA’s Art in the Streets exhibition and the Levi’s Film Workshop at MOCA, Levi’s threw a Wrap Party for the filmmakers, artists and partners who made it all happen. Art in the Streets attracted over 200,000 visitors and broke MOCA’s previous attendance records from their Murakami and Warhol shows. The party featured a live performance by LA’s experimental art-punk duo No Age, a special VJ set by Peanut Butter Wolf and special after-hours tours of the exhibition led by MOCA Director Jeffrey Deitch.

Peanut Butter Wolf VJ’ed an awesome set of classic music videos from his archives.

For the four month-long exhibition (April 17-August 8), I had the pleasure of serving as the Programming Director of the Levi’s Film Workshop. I had the opportunity to set-up creative collaborations between amazing filmmakers with the world’s top street artists, LA’s most celebrated chefs, world renowned skate filmers and unique live music performances. These films are all viewable online and are popping up around the globe at film festivals and cool outlets like ACE Hotel and BoingBoing TV on Virgin America.

However these films were just the beginning as they inspired thousands to visit the Workshop, partake in hands-on workshops and get their hands dirty making their own films using the free public resources (editing stations, animation stands and camera “rentals”).

No Age rocked a blistering set with a couple surprises.

So after all the fun pairings of creative talents, we couldn’t just have an ordinary No Age live music set for the closing part. On behalf of the Workshop, I invited filmmaker/photographer Todd Cole to create a unique film to capture the essence No Age’s performance within the Art in the Streets exhibition - he chose to turn the whole thing on its head and direct a live video event that would be as much fun for the audience at the event as viewers who would see the film later on.

Watch the No Age X Todd Cole film here:

A Mariachi joined No Age for the finale.

Everyone asks me, “Why did the Workshop have to end? Where do we go now to make our cinematic dreams come true?” The cool gear that powered the Workshop lives on to be utilized and enjoyed by the community at the Workshop’s two non-profit partners: You’ll find all sorts of traditional film and new fangled digital production gear plus classes on how to use it at Echo Park Film Center and the Workshop’s VJ gear will provide pre-show entertainment and help power documentation of special guests at Cinefamily, one of LA’s coolest cinemas.

Looking at life through 3D glasses.

Enjoy the full photo set from the evening.

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Since we began the Flux Screening Series at the Hammer Museum in 2008 we’ve been hosting music video premieres for each track of the N.A.S.A. - The Spirit of the Apollo, a collaborative music/art/film project.

Now we are proud to World Premiere the finished film that includes interviews and performances with a wide array of musicians, artists and filmmakers who worked on the project.

Please join us Tuesday August 2nd for what promises to be a memorable Flux Screening Series.

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Last summer on our trip to New York City, I was happy to encounter Miranda July’s “Eleven Heavy Things” at Union Square. The pieces are at once tactile and naughty with messages that make you think “hmmm which one am I”?

Lucky for us Angelenos, we finally get to have some fun with these same installations at the MoCA’s Pacific Design Center lawn starting this Saturday, July 23, from 6-8pm (through October 23). Go see it and enjoy some ice cream treats from Cool Haus.

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As part of the Secrets of the Doc panel I hosted at the Levi’s Film Workshop at MOCA, I had the pleasure of interviewing acclaimed filmmakers Doug Pray (Scratch, Infamy, Art & Copy), Ondi Timoner (DIG!, We Live in Public) and Michael Rapaport (Beats Rhymes & Life: The Travels Of A Tribe Called Quest). I asked Doug, a long-time friend, to share his most essential tips for documentary filmmakers:

1. The more organized and meticulously planned your documentary production is, the more time you’ll have to play, be free and discover genuine spontaneity and cinema verité beauty.
2. Research is essential, but pre-interviews with your subject can kill good interviews.
3. Short, simple questions in interviews are much better than long, rambling ones (which tend to be more about you, than your subject). The best question of all time is “why?”
4. Don’t ask your interviewees to “repeat the question in their answer.” Besides stressing them out and making them do your job for you, it leads to boring answers. When they give you one word, un-editable answers, just act stupid and ask them what they’re talking about, as if you forgot. Repetition is fine.
5. When editing dialog in documentaries, edit sound first, then picture. Sound is the secret weapon of most documentary scenes–if you build a sonically believable sequence (whether dialog, music, or insects chirping), it will work.
6. If you are debating whether to leave a scene in or out of your film, 99% of the time it should go out. Editing documentaries is less about collecting and putting together… it’s about omitting and throwing away.
7. Be grateful if you are able to get meaningful distribution for your film, and remember than distributing documentaries is a thankless, difficult chore in a nearly impossible market with a terrible, horrible history of financial success. You don’t have to love your distributor or agree with all of their suggestions; you do have to respect them, and be willing to let go.

Doug Pray is an American documentary film director, cinematographer, and editor who often explores unique subcultures in his films. His work includes Surfwise, Big Rig, Infamy, Scratch (2001), a documentary about turntablism and DJ culture; and his first feature, Hype! (1996), a documentary about the explosion and exploitation of the Seattle grunge scene of the early ’90’s. His most recent film Art & Copy, premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, is about advertising and creativity and was distributed by 7th Art Releasing and PBS in 2009.

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