Born of a desire to capture the powerful beauty of nature, Berlin based Director and Video Artist Harun Güler turns his slow motion focus to Ah! Kosmos track Wide (feat. Özgür Yılmaz) as he explores the potent intermingling of the elements alongside the triangular relationship between a triad of individuals. Transfixed by the interplay of Wide’s artful images, DN caught up with Harun to find out more.
What inspired this emotional and physical triangle out in nature?
Our starting point of this video work was to create a series of strong images out in nature – in which not only the four elements of air, earth, fire and water are intermingled into each other but also the emotional and physical relationship between the three characters.
How collaborative was the experience of working with Ah! Kosmos on this project?
The collaboration between Başak (Ah! Kosmos) and I was really seamless as we clicked immediately regarding the state of mind we wanted to achieve in this work. As a director, it is an invaluable thing to feel trusted and not being compromised within your creative process.
There is a thin line between erotica and pornography.
Were you at all concerned about the perception of nudity in the video?
There is a thin line between erotica and pornography. In order to depict sexuality in a way which does not have the feel of soft porn, I wanted to make sure that the scenes were on a higher level aesthetically. It is an exciting field which I want to explore more in-depth at future projects.
How did the need to shoot both bright outdoor and moodier indoor scenes determine your gear selection?
Since we shot the whole video in slow motion it was more important to be well equipped with fast, top-notch lenses for shooting at higher frames. But generally, we mainly used natural light in order to be as flexible as we could and only had a small amount of lighting support for the darker indoor scenes.
During the edit did you work towards recreating a predetermined plan or was it more a journey of discovery?
Since my professional background is video editing I usually have a finished edit in my head before a shoot. Of course, we were mostly dependent on the sunlight here so some of the visuals and details invariably changed during the actual shooting process – we had about 60 stills on our shooting board to capture in one day. Eventually, the predetermined plan came off very well.
What’s next?
I am in touch with a few of my favourite music artists to collaborate on their next music video projects – this is pretty exciting! I have also been working on a multi-channel video installation for quite a while which I would love to premiere here in Berlin sometime next year.
