Romantic Child Studios » damian Kuehn

Two Fingers – Not Perfect Music Video

Sterling — Tue, 25 May 2010 21:14:42 +0000

The Two Fingers album is an inspirational musical uprising by a seemingly odd group of collaborators. This highly anticipated album brings together the two worlds of electronica and hip hop which have been colliding for years with artists like RJD2, Zilla, Z-Trip, DJ Shadow, Nerd and even The Roots. Two Fingers album however, is a massive collision of these worlds, equivalent to a 300 car pile up.

Although the album is classified as a hip hop album, there are still similar (but not familiar) Amon Tobin and DoubleClick confrontational electronic undertones.

Amon Tobin and DoubleClick are known for their creative slant towards an area of music that goes way beyond the confines of being considered simply “electronica”. Sway on the other hand is undoubtedly UK’s biggest hip hop artist, and offers the album sometimes light-hearted and funny and at other times politically charged and issue based lyrics over Amon and Doubleclick’s beautifully crafted soundscapes.

Two Fingers is a surprising album. It’s not surprising in the sense that it’s a great album (I think most people expected that), it’s surprising because listeners have no idea what to expect with this collaboration. It’s a new sound with new dub, jungle and hip hop rhythms, highly accented rhymes, and unpredictable soundscapes. Whether you’re interested in the sounds of dreamlike obscurity or mainstream rhythms this album will hit you hard.

We’ve just wrapped the music video for one of the more popular songs off the album entitled “Not Perfect”. You can see the music video below.

Just to give you an idea of how seemingly contradictory this album is, listen to the Amon Tobin Track entitled “4 Ton Mantis” (Directed by my favorite Canadian Photographer: Floria Sigismondi)

And now listen to Sway’s song entitled “silver and Gold” featuring Akon.

COLLABORATORS

Directed by: Sterling Pache
Designed by: Timothy Hung
Produced by: Damian Kuehn

Music Collaborators:

Two Fingers:
Amon Tobin
Doubleclick
Sway

Lullaby For A Lunatic

Sterling — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 18:59:27 +0000

Lullaby for a lunatic is our first independent feature film we’ve been silent about for the last few months now. Damian Kuehn and myself (Sterling Pache), began early pre-production last fall, but we’re now confident to start talking about the project seeing as some of the critical pieces have fallen into place. The film is currently scheduled to begin shooting in September 2010. We will be shooting the feature film on the Canon 5D Mark II (And possibly the Canon 7D).

While we’ve been busy casting & strategizing, the film’s writer, Igor Serdarevic has been working with, and being inspired by, the film’s designer; Timothy Hung to bring you what we hope will be not only a compelling and unusual story, but also a story backed by strong visuals and design.

Our goal is to create a film that treats the theme of love approached from a unique & imaginative angle.

By means of dreams and other symbols, which are important parts of our life, implemented in storytelling, image and sound, we will have our protagonist exploring two vastly different worlds in his quest to better understand himself and his environment.

Our protagonist; Liam, is laid off work and arrives home early one day to find his wife at home with her dance teacher Pablo. Liam begins to spiral out of control. Confused and quickly loosing a grip on his own sanity he chases Pablo down the corridor, where he is confronted with an image of himself in a hallway mirror. Our suspicions that something unreal is stirring is confirmed as Liam looks in the mirror, but the image does not mimic his own behaviour. It is at this point that we realize Liam has lost his mind.

As Liam descends into his subconscious he is greeted by the memory of a few of his childhood imaginary friends: A doctor named Poldy and a romantic interest; a girl-woman with false suicidal tendencies named Chunga.

Liam’s perception of reality is altered for the duration of the film as he sets off down a path of debauchery, to seek revenge against Pablo. During this degenerate, sometimes nasty, experience Liam becomes increasingly drawn towards his imaginary friend Chunga. Through the development of this relationship he comes to terms with what his wife did and he even has the opportunity to understand her position by being in a similar situation himself with his imaginary relationship to Chunga. He hopes in the end that his wife too, will forgive him for his own inability to control his emotions.

Here’s to creating cinema and misguided protagonists.

You can follow Damian’s (the film’s producer) on his film production blog to keep informed about the production process.

Short Film

Sterling — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 01:25:39 +0000

Mars to Jupiter is both the name of our most recent short film and the name of the song in the video. The song was created by a brilliant musician out of Tokyo, Japan named coppe’ : mango + sweet rice and the song is entitled “Mars to Jupiter”. You can also check out her MySpace page here. The song is significant becuase our short film is about the integration of a Rwandan genocide survivor into North American society. We explore her struggles, her judgments and her cynicism. You can see some teaser footage for the film below staring Zara Durrani and Mireille Urumuri.

Below you’ll find a few production stills from one of the most recent short films out of Romantic Child Studios. We’ll post all information regarding this short film and the progress we’re making with it on this page.

Enjoy!

Codependence Short Film

Sterling — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 06:26:56 +0000

Codependence is one of Romantic Child Studios latest short films. It’s a tale about the human experience of codependency and coexistence with the plot being communicated through modern dance. The film won’t be released to the public because we’re submitting it to festivals. However we have put together a small trailer so you can see sample footage.

Codependence Short Film Trailer from Romantic Child Studios on Vimeo.

Innocence and vulnerability are represented in the short film in one character who is cared for by a stronger, dominating yet maternal other character.

Due to the nature of their relationship; a dependency is created which is shown by physical attachments, interconnectedness and weight sharing. The film then explores two different scenarios. Once the codependency is created, both characters become vulnerable yet strong and work together to create something beautiful. The direction changes however when the stronger character abuses their power. The result is destruction, violence and self abuse.

We’ve also used this short as an opportunity to introduce audiences to parts of dancers that they don’t normally get an opportunity to see. By moving the camera in close to the dancers the the audience can see the dancer as human rather than a disconnected visual object. We’ve done this by showing the small details such as blinking, pulses, breathing, reaction and smaller body parts such as the spinal chord, neck, collar bone, ribs and wrists.

Enjoy.

Short Films

Sterling — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 19:58:17 +0000

Last month Damian Kuehn shot the short film “Conviction” in the studio. We prepped for 1 day and we shot for an entire day and night. You can see some of Damian’s work below. You can also see the behind the scenes footage here.

Conviction from Cinemanifesto on Vimeo.

Here is the trailer for the short film “Inside Out”

Inside Out – Trailer from Cinemanifesto on Vimeo.

Another short film called “Bridge”

Bridge from Cinemanifesto on Vimeo.

This was shot in 2 hours by Nihat Karakum, we spend more time setting up the camera and dolly than filming… I wanted to experiment and learn how to use the PANASONIC AJ-HDX900 DVCPRO HD CAMCORDER…

Reel scientist from Nihat Karakum on Vimeo.