PERMALINK: January 19, 2011 |
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Visual Auteurs: Jason Last
VISUAL AUTEURS is a series of interviews with some of today’s most exciting artists and filmmakers. Whether they are upcoming talents or established professionals, whether they do fashion films, music videos or art films, what we’re looking for are just great people, who do what they do with great passion and in a distinguished style.
Jason Last was one of the first filmmakers who dedicated his directorial craft solely to the genre of fashion and in doing so helped initiate the genre we now call “Fashion Film”. We had a little chat with him about his work and, yeah, you guessed it, all things fashion film.
Jason, you were one of the pioneers of fashion film, please tell us about how you got involved in it.
I’ve always had a very strong connection to sound and moving image and the emotion it can carry, or the story it can tell. Fashion film is something that has come out of my passion for video and filmmaking, as well as my love of fashion imagery. It is a combination of both things and is derived from my mind and sensibility as an artist, a director and an image-maker. Fashion film combines the mediums with which I want to work and create: art, fashion and cinema. It was a natural progression.
My friend and brilliant collaborator creative director Jaime Rubiano and I would dream up ideas when we were in school and shoot them. We did our first film Elegia, not really knowing how or why, but combining these worlds we were inspired and driven by creatively. We taught each other a lot in this process and fashion film allowed us to fuse all worlds into one. So it worked.
We’ve done a lot of films together since then.
“ALEPH”, the brand-new collaboration between Jason Last & Jaime Rubiano
What are, in your opinion, some aspects that had a big impact on fashion film in last couple of years?
I think what has changed the most is the idea and acceptance that this is a genre of filmmaking and something that the fashion industry recognizes as marketable and useful. We’ve also seen an influx of films being made as the Canon 5Ds, etc make it accessible for anyone to make moving images while they take photos. But we know that the technology is not what makes a film good.
You’re also a photographer, now, if you’d have to choose one over the other, what would be your choice and why?
I’ve never been a photographer professionally. I always have done video. I studied video in a fine arts context and have been using and making videos since I was a teenager. Recording everything, cutting images together, making films. I have always had an affinity and connection to moving image and sound, and the power the two have together. I’m all about moving image.
What is your involvement with Diane Pernet and the “A Shaded View On Fashion Film”-Festival?
I have worked with Diane for a few years on various projects like the Hyères Festival, etc. I’m involved in various ways; mainly assembling and organizing the films for screening and presentation, as well as some programming selection. All of us involved work hard at various capacities to push it forward & make it a strong & successful festival.
ASVOFF is something I really believe in and working with Diane is really special; as she is a pioneer in defining and developing fashion film as a genre. She gave it a place to live and be discussed, and I’m grateful for that.
Your films have a very pure and intimate feel. They revolve around bodies and faces, you work a lot with close-ups… you almost seem more interested in the human beings, resp. models than in the fashion they’re wearing… Are you?
As a filmmaker & artist, I am very much interested in not only capturing beauty and detail, but also working on an intuitive level that comes from both what I am feeling and also where I want to take the viewer. I do really love working with models, and what they can offer to my work, both visually and personality-wise. But I feel the same way about the collections, designers and clothes I am shooting. The models and the fashion are basically the canvases and tools with which I create. So if either are giving me a lot, or are exciting and beautiful to work with, that’s where my focus goes. For the films I make, I think one needs the other. But definitely models give it so much energy and bring the clothes to life.
“WHEN YOU’RE A STAR” by Jason Last & Jamie Rubiano
What are some of your main influences regarding your work as a filmmaker?
There are of course too many. There is so much work and talent that has changed the way I think and create; that has completely moved me to work. And in all genres of creativity like art, film, fashion, music, performance.
My first influence is art. Somewhere along the line, galleries led me to learning about video art and performance artists of the 60s & 70s, etc, and a world was opened up for me. There’s a lot of passion there for me for what I do. The most exciting and influential people for me are the ones that cross genres - where art meets fashion meets cinema, and so on..
Fashion Film can be so many things and it’s continually being re-defined. It’s these innovators that continue to use fashion elements in a moving cinematic form that will continue to move it forward, tho I’m not sure it needs to be defined as one thing.
What changes or development do you see for your own work as a fashion film director and for the genre per se in the near future?
Ideally I just see more work being made and developing new relationships and access to amazing people and subject matter! For me, it’s all about creating, but again, it’s also about the tools with which I am able to work with. The models, the designers. They are what inspire me.
“AUGURIES OF INNOCENCE” by Jason Last
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