Birds

Preening within the white space of a photographer’s studio, the performers in Birds form still tableaux that leave them open to the viewer’s visual appetite. Lights move; shadows float across faces, skin, and hand-painted surfaces. The environment that supports and surrounds the performers is set in motion as well, turning and swaying without reference to solid ground.

Birds is a kind of magic act that shows how the trick is done. The film mines pre-digital tools, using archaic film tricks, the contrived staginess of theatre, the old-fashioned pleasures of the ‘plastic arts’ and the transformative thrill of fashion to create a completely different kind of ‘virtual reality’. Fantasy is made tangible through visible seams and holes, and as a result, attention vacillates between the transformation of everyday materials, and that transformation’s failure. A soundtrack crafted on the moog synthesizer grounds the gliding world in ironic analog humility.

Cast

Tamsin Carlson
Robin Conrad
Liz Hoefner
Armin Moridian
Elena Scherr

Crew

Director of Photography
Patrick Keating

Composer
Brian Kehew

First Assistant Director
Matilde Matteucci

First Camera Assistant
Jarrod Heath

Key Grip
David Cruz

Grip
Emily Lacey

Stage Manager
Claudia Zannoni

Sets Engineer
Bob Merritt

Sets Production
Savando Guerrero
Bob Merritt
Elana Scherr

Stage Hands
Court Dickert
Rachel Osborn
Ashley Teplin

Stills Photographers
Anthony Pierson
Ramona Trent

Costume Assistants
Felisa Funes
Trevor Watson

Makeup Artists
Zee Graham
Rachel Romero

Production Services
Complex Corporation

Thanks to

Miauhaus
Alex Blatt
Andy Martin
Bob Merritt