Broad.cat 2010 – The Best So Far

30 November 2010 By Vera Ciria 0 In Audiovisual Design, Events

Four conferences, a new section, one packed auditorium and a killer post-party made for the best edition of Broad.cat to date. Entertaining, funny, insightful and professional, the afternoon was great and upheld the “Think Big” theme of this year’s edition.

Telenoika by Xavi Boronat

Telenoika were first in line for the afternoon of Broad.cat 2010. Their talk was titled “Mapping: From Screen to Plane to Perspective Projection”. Divided into two parts, Eloi and Santi first talked about their references and how they have been influenced since a very young age by video games, music and art. All these elements come together, shaping the colours, forms and audio of their mappings. Informative, they gradually started to decline from there. Their insistence in talking in Catalán was slightly irritating especially since not everyone in the audience was from Barcelona. The second part was dedicated to showing videos of their mapping work… Video after video…

They ended with a short mapping of the stage area of the auditorium which was quite spectacular and a great treat for those of the audience who have never seen this type of work. It’s such a shame about their stubbornness with the language issue; their work is breath-taking yet they seem to be running themselves into the ground…

Arnold Schwartzman by Xavier Padrós

The afternoon started to pick up immediately with Telenoika’s mapping and the appearance of Arnold Schwartzman, introduced by Javier Mariscal. “50 Years of Perpetual Movement” was the title of his talk and the man can most surely talk. This was a journey among Hollywood royalty, pickings from the curious mind of a brilliant audiovisual genius. Born in London, the area where he lived was bombed so he was sent off to the British countryside. Arnold was interested in becoming a projectionist when he was quite young and managed to endure one day’s work before realizing that it was too hot and dark for him and he couldn’t see the film that was being shown. He studied graphic design in the end and was later sent to Korea during his years in the army. He started his illustrious career at a local TV station in South Hampton in 1959.

This is a man who has worked with music legends: The Rolling Stones, The Who, James Brown, The Beatles. While head of design for Saul Bass, he had to manage and direct a team of graphic designers and realized after six months that he much preferred to do his own work. He won an Oscar for his documentary film, Genocide, in 1982. This was the first Holocaust documentary to win an Academy Award. He was director of design for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.

During his time on the stage, Arnold rolled out the anecdotes and regaled us with his experiences. His warm, open demeanor and quirky accent are completely charming and left everyone wanting more. I’m sure that every single person in the audience wanted Mr. Schwartzman to be their grandfather. In spite of his 74 years of age, he is still very much active, recently completing two murals for the Cunard cruise ships. He says he sees his appearance in the mirror yet feels young inside. He is currently researching and gathering information for a possible documentary about his hometown in England.

Arnold Schwartzman is an inspiration, a reference for today. He self-taught himself animation, starting with stop-motion. He was and is very ambitious. Looking and listening to him, one can believe that anything is possible. It was extremely moving, positively brilliant. I would have saved him for the end…

broadcat_florencia_picco_fox_international

Florencia Picco of Fox International by Xavier Padrós

After a brief pause, the afternoon resumed with the new Tête à Tête section. Five different ADG members were previously invited to spend five minutes on-stage and share their projects and ideas. It was quick, entertaining and well organized.

Then it was time for Florencia Picco of Fox International to take to the stage. Titled “Brand Schizophrenia”, Florencia explained the massive work that is done from Italy for the more than 128 television channels around the world that comprise Fox. Focusing on channel idents, branding, and how each aspect must be tweaked from country to country, she underlined the need for a healthy balance between content, marketing and creativity. She also discussed the struggle between the rational and the emotional and how emotions will always win in the battle when creating positive associations.

Florencia’s talk was probably the most insightful of the afternoon, focusing on a very corporate point of view. She shared many videos which were slightly on the longish side and was often a bit cold and unfeeling, which I know for a fact is very different from her warm and affectionate personal character. I was able to glean quite a lot of useful information for an upcoming project that I have in the works, for which I am extremely grateful.

Philip Hunt of Studio AKA

The last conference of the evening was by Philip Hunt of Studio AKA. Although spirits were starting to lag after hours sitting in the auditorium and restless thoughts were turning to the immediate post-party, Philip managed to captivate the audience and delivered an arresting account of the studio’s work. Philip lives and breathes what he does, demonstrating excitement not only about his own work, but also for the work of others. The studio throws itself into each piece of work even though more than 60% never sees the light of day. That is dedication and passion. He shared various videos and images of AKA’s work but I was left wanting more. Their endeavors are so beautifully inspiring that I don’t mind being talked through the pieces that can be seen on their web.

The afternoon was a complete success and the action continued over at MauMau. Unfortunately, the food was quite scarce, but other than that, the venue was packed, the drinks were flowing and it was great to catch up with people and network a bit. What I really like about the Broad.cat events is that I get so much out of them, even though I have nothing to do with the audiovisual and graphic design areas. Congratulations to the organizers and to Mich Micenmacher, the event commissioner, for doing a spectacular job.

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arnold schwartzman, Barcelona, Broad.cat, Caixa Forum, florencia picco, fox international, maumau, oscars, philip hunt, studio AKA, telenoika