I’d forgotten about this. I’d forgotten about how difficult it is to get ink out. Off your fingernails, the seams of your fingerprints, the creases in your hands. And your face, getting ink off your face.
Yesterday, Terri, her accomplice Bette (cinematographer), Girvinites Andrew, Brian and Sarah and I worked on a new “film”, shot in 16mm, on a Russian hand held camera (Krasnagorsk: K-3 site: http://www.k3camera.com/), hand wound, with a “wind up” mechanism (since there isn’t any port for “power”). The intention of the “film” is to show the fundamental process of how we work, in the most simplistic and powerful terms. It’s about translation of thought into graphic expression, and I mean graphic in the context of visual power, and the sparking of imagination and creativity. It’s about expressing a “force” and bringing this into realization.
The story is yet unfolding; it’s an evolving cinematic piece, but soon to be completed. As to Girvin marketing, we see this as a tool to say something bigger and bolder about how we act. It’s not a reel; it’s about our creativity. And, ultimately, how this process folds into our thinking about our relationships with our clients. Our selves.
We are really excited to see how this “film” in 16mm becomes a stark, evocative video, illuminated through Terri/Larry’s workings at the flame*. We will be sending this on to our motion picture and studio clients, and to our other colleagues that are interested in our interactive capacities. It’s a quintessential statement about emotion/motion. How we can tell stories. For us. For our clients.
But there’s a left over. Part of the dynamics for this presentation involved rendering, in giant form, a live action treatment of a huge 6 foot plus high, calligraphic interpretation of Ch’i. For those of you that are new to Girvin, ch’i, the chinese character, is used on our presentation materials, and elsewhere. Ch’i loosely interprets as: force, vitality, spiritual presence. It is a force of nature. Tai Ch’i Chuan practices the “dance of energy”, moving and flowing with the spiritual essence that is swirling around us and through all things.
In the main lobby here in Seattle, for awhile, is the rendering of this “action painting” drawn with buckets of ink, spattering the walls, the ceiling, all over the floor, my sweater, my pants, shoes…my face and fingers. It’s there in celebration about our mission, to capture and illustrate (to make “shine” or lustrous) the ideas and intentions of our clients, the results of our listening and the expression of our strategy. I’ve attached a picture as a file, should you care to look at it.
Most of the ink is gone from our environs, from my fingertips (there’s still a little on the fingernails), but the resident character remains. The strokes symbolize the following: above, the three horizontal brushmarks are the “vapor of the sacrifice”; the “wrapping up stroke” is the altar; the cross-like strokes are the four cardinal directions, with the “seed strokes” of the elements of sacrifice, the offerings themselves. Perhaps the basic symbolism of the character is in taking the essence, and offering it up…it’s what we do in capturing the spirit, and taking it to another plane.
For you…want to see it? Attachments included. See the video? Let me know.
Enjoy!
Best
Tim Girvin