Read our Q&A with Stanton Cornish-Ward - the winner of the prize: BEST NEW TALENT for “The Immaculate Reflection of an Impure World”.
Q: What was your original concept for making the film?
A: My main focus for ‘The Immaculate Reflection of an Impure World’ was to display the ambiguity of fashion. I chose the colour white to explore this, as a fixed point which is open to different interpretations.
I chose white after spending five weeks in hospital at the start of 2015, as I was surrounded by it. I mean it’s a universal symbol of cleanness - the white of doctors coats, the white of hospitals. Objects which are expected to be clean, such as bed linen and towels, are traditionally white. I started expanding on what else white represented; The Western symbol of purity (white lilies, snow, moonlight), the empyrean realm (the absence of image, an absolute void), the colour of reflection, White as a symbol of candour, the colour of surrender, an end to conflict.
White however, isn’t only tied to the perfect, the divine, the innocent. In eastern cultures it is the colour of death and mourning - the supernatural and unexplained. white is the colour of reincarnation, showing that death is not a permanent separation the world. An idea that also stems into the that of western cultures - the white of ghosts, the white of the pallor of death. in the last judgement, death rides a white horse.
Summed up by Kandinsky; white is the harmony of silence, and in music it shows the pauses that breaks. ‘It is not a dead silence, but one pregnant with possibilities’.
Photo from behind the scenes.
Q: What was the biggest challenge for you in the process of making this film.
A: As this was my first attempt at a fashion film, the whole process was really daunting. learning how to write a script, cast actors, organise crew and learn how to video edit as well as creating garments for the film as well was really challenging. I’m really lucky though I had such an amazing crew and cast that were so dedicated and professional, who preformed above and beyond my expectations was just amazing- After the first shoot I was crying because it aligned so perfectly with what I envisioned, I really couldn’t have done any of this without them. Filmmaking is all team work.
Q: Why make a fashion film?
A: Fashion film is interesting mix. it doesn’t conform to the rules of traditional film making - it borrows genres and stylistic ideas but it’s such a flexible medium - at the same time, it’s not video art either, yet, like video art, it allows itself expand and on one idea in a very conceptual way. As a designer, there is always a mood, an idea, an intellectual framework there when you are designing a collection, and I feel sometimes this gets lost, or simply misses a chance to be fully teased out - fashion film lets you expand on these ideas. It allows fashion to be the protagonist, and the ideas around it it’s storyline and environment.
Photo from behind the scenes.
Q: How is a fashion film different to a show or a still photograph of your clothes?
A: Fashion is made for motion, it’s as simple as that. A photograph can capture the mood of the collection - but it’s ultimately frozen, a snippet of something. a catwalk show gives us motion and a sense of theatricality - but it can sometimes lose itself in the spectacle and constraints of the predictability catwalk formula. fashion film as I mentioned earlier is about letting an audience see the ideas behind the collection in a very genuine way, an almost voyeuristic way. It’s about capturing a moment, and there is something really beautiful about that. “
Watch “The Immaculate Reflection of an Impure World” right here
For more film and info check: www.stantoncornishward.com
