Hi-Fi Fridays
Sundance Channel, New York, New York, 2003
Description
The purpose of this project was to create on-air identity and navigation for Hi-Fi Fridays, a block of programming centered on music and film and catering to viewers who are music and film fanatics.
The approach taken was to strip the music down to only a Casio keyboard beat with no further embellishment. We wanted to refer to no specific style, era, or genre of music so that people of all sizes, shapes, styles and ages could groove without any judgment—music is for everyone.
By making the film camera visible in the shot, music and film were represented literally and equally by a dancer and a cameraperson, each taking exactly half of the screen space. The line between the front camera action and the behind-the-scenes action was obliterated. The point of view of the on-set cameraperson revealed intimate close-ups of the dancer's body, which contrasted sharply against the wide, almost clinical shots from the main camera. The sound design for the wide shots was made to sound hollow in the vast black void, whereas for the close-up shots, the sound design was without atmospheric consideration, as though it were directly inside the dancer’s head.
The budget for Hi-Fi Fridays was $25,000 and was shot on 16mm film using two cameras.
This piece brought levity, humanity and a carefree atmosphere to the Sundance Channel and set a tone for the other projects that followed.
Juror Notes
Very “now” and very funny.
Credits
- Design firm
- Sundance Channel
- Creative director
- Keira Alexandra
- Designer
- Keira Alexandra
- Production director
- Adam Pincus
- Production artist
- Joanne Harmon
- Editor
- Holle Singer
- Music
- Jared Gutstadt
- Sound designer
- Matt Foglia
- Directors of photography
- Brian Rigney Hubbard, Kirsten Johnson
- Producer
- Anne Mullen
- Project manager
- Krista Liney
- Client
- Sundance Channel