Film director Aviv Kosloff and Make-Up Artist Einat Dan teamed up again to create a film in collaboration with fashion designer Antonio Urzi and won for the second time at La Jolla Fashion Film Festival, one of the most important international fashion film events.
KALTBLUT met Aviv and Einat for an exclusive interview and wanted to know what is the short about, how does it feel to be honored and other thoughts.
KALTBLUT: You won at La Jolla Fashion Film Festival the price for Best Costume Design by Maison Antonio Urzi this year. Congrats! How do you feel about it?
Aviv and Einat: We are very proud that we won this prize in La Jolla. We worked so hard on this film and it’s great to see that a jury of top fashion people appreciates this effort.
KALTBLUT: Did you attend this years` edition of LJFFF and how was it?
Einat: We were nominated for best make up and best costume in LJFFF, and I went there to represent the film (unfortunately Aviv could not come with me). It was my second time attending the festival (I was there in 2013 with our film MIA). It was an amazing experience again, it’s great beautiful event with a lot of opportunities to meet the right people for the fashion world. We got a lot of compliments about Queen Brushands, and I heard from many people that it was their favorite film from the festival, so I’m very happy about that.
KALTBLUT: What is the fashion short Queen Brushands about?
Aviv and Einat: Queen Brushands is a dark fairytale about the Evil Queen, her Robot slave and the handsome young Lover: When the queen’s cruelty makes even the emotionless robot break, a magical robot fairy comes to the rescue and unleashes a horrible punishment on the queen – The Brush-hands. It is homage to the story of King Midas from the Greek Mythology. Every thing the queen touches with the brush-hands it gets turned into gems. Touching her own face seals the queen forever inside a gem mask.
KALTBLUT: What special features has “Queen Brushands” and what do you think makes this short different from others?
Aviv: Unlike many fashion films, Queen Brushnads, is a real short film with characters and narrative. It uses fashion and makeup to create a magic world, to take the audience on a fantastic journey. This ‘trip’ is a very visual one, an exploration of characters through aesthetics captured by a camera. Einat and me are always interested in transformation. How makeup can be part a changing and evolving character. And I think this quality of our film really sets it apart from most fashion work that is still mostly based on still images.
Einat: Queen Brushands is special first of all because it has a real story. It’s not another glamour beauty look, it’s powerful, and there is an evil queen and good fairy and a robot living in the future. So it makes it more special. I created different kinds of make up and body-painting, colorful, with different types of elements on the face. The audience will never get bored!
KALTBLUT: Tell us more about the process, from the idea to the result?
Aviv: We started working on this film in the beginning of the year. Einat brought some ideas about what kind of makeup and body painting she would like to do this time and already got Nina de Lianin on board. Nina was the muse that inspired many aspects of this film. So we brainstormed together and thought about the characters we want Nina to play and what other characters we want to create. We started thinking in very abstract and visual terms. Einat knew our stylist Pablo Patane from previous projects and he connected us to Maison Antonio Urzi. The moment we saw pictures of his pieces we knew they fit perfectly to the images we had in mind. Then, together, we put these characters into action and planned the outline of the story. The next step was putting all these elements together in a short script and a mood board. This helped us communicate our ideas to the rest of the cast and crew that came on board this project.
We shot in Smallville Studios in Kreuzberg for 2 days. The editing was challenging because we had to find the right balance between the progress of the story and the more abstract beauty elements. So this took a bit of time. In the last stages of editing I realized that the special ‘language’ of the makeup in this film needs a matching VFX style. So we really went deep into post-production to create the final look of the film.
KALTBLUT: Queen Brushands features Fashion by Maison Antonio Urzi, was the short specially made for the designer and if not, how did you come aware of him?
Aviv and Einat: The project was our initiative, but once we got Maison Antonio Urzi on board, it was obvious that his wearable sculptures will be a prominent element in the film. We both knew him because of his work for Lady Gaga and when Pablo Patane (our stylist) made the connection with him we were very excited. Fashion like his elevates us from what we wear in our daily lives to a more fantastic futuristic world. His work really deserves the prize it got!
KALTBLUT: Two year ago, you (Aviv and Einat) already worked together on the fashion short „Mia” and won the prize at LJFFF for Best Make Up. Would you say, you both are a dream team?
Einat: I love working with Aviv he is amazing Director, smart and very creative, I hope to get more project with him. It’s always good teamwork and people appreciate what we create together.
Aviv: As a film director I’m always looking for special images to capture in the camera. Working with Einat is such a rewarding experience because she has the ability to create the most marvelous and beautiful images. Each of us has a different professional background and very different set of skills and we complete each other. Together we can achieve powerful results.
KALTBLUT: While you create the shorts, you have already in mind to attend on those festivals?
Aviv and Einat: We made Queen Brushands and MIA because we wanted to explore ideas and techniques we never tried before. But of course we also had fashion film festivals in mind.
KALTBLUT: What do you think about those festivals in general? La Jolla Fetival describes itself as the „World’s Largest Gathering of Fashion Film Makers“ and uses the close distance to Hollywood. Do you agree?
Einat: La Jolla fashion film festival is definetely one of the best in the world, I spoke with many important people in the event and it’s really high level, the good thing is it’s really close to LA so many producers and directors from Hollywood are visiting the festival, I had the luck to meet many of them and hopefully I will get to collaborate with them soon, some already contacted me.
KALTBLUT: How is the feedback about winning such a prize? Do you get more attention, more jobs or just more followers on your social media accounts?
Einat: When the feedback is this important prize of course people talk about it, and this leads to job offers. Being nominated and then winning gets attention.
KALTBLUT: Why do you think it`s so important to create fashion films and where do you see the future of it?
Aviv: I really love fashion films, I started my directing career with music videos and I feel that fashion films are becoming what music videos were in the 90’s: The medium where new images, new styles, new artists and new approaches are tested and refined. And as visual artist we need this medium that pushes us to explore and get better. Everyday we are bombarded with so much content: Films, TV, commercials, videos in Facebook, cat videos on Youtube and all kind of other sorts of media. But the quantity comes on the expense of quality. Most of this content is cheap, sloppy and unoriginal. This is why fashion films are so important; it is an island of quality, a place where filmmakers still strive to perfection. Where aesthetics and beauty still matter. Where creating an image that never existed before in the world is still evaluated and celebrated.
KALTBLUT: What would you change?
Aviv: I wish we had more time and money to make a 20 minute film!
About: Aviv Kosloff is an award-winning director of commercials, fashion films, short films and music videos. His clients include: Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, Lamborghini, Vogue, GM, Galeries Lafayette and others. His films won prizes and where screened in festivals all over the world. He is originally from Israel, but lives and works now in Berlin, Germany. www.aviv.tv
Einat Dan in an international make-up artist and bodypainter. Winner of the Golden Mask Award, 2014. Her work appeared in magazines all over the world: Vogue, Vogue spoza, Elle, Instyle, Tatler, Maxim, Reve, Trucco & belezza, Make up artist magazine, Institute, Solis, Kaltblut, Gracian collection, Fashion&Beuaty. She was the head make-up artist at New-York Fashion Week FTL-Moda show and lead make-up artist for the Vienna Live Ball opening event. She is originally from Israel, but is based now in Berlin, Germany. www.einatdan.com
Antonio Urzi is an Italian fashion designer famous for his creations for Lady Gaga (While he was working for Maison Armani and Versace). He is now working independently as Maison Antonio Urzi. His pieces are wearable sculptures combining shiny surfaces into armor like outfits. His designs attracted huge media coverage during the FTL-Moda fashion show in New York Fashion week.
Fashion Film directed by Aviv Kosloff & Einat Dan
Cast: Nina de Lianin, Lex Olsen, Clemens Buchwald
Stylist: Pablo Patane
Producer: Mortiz Wessendorff
Line Producer: Katerina Chaimanta
