Tal Rosner - Film/Graphic Design

Our second Practitioner lecture of this year was on Friday the 7th of November with Tal Rosner. Tal Rosner is a BAFTA award winning designer and film maker who specializes in abstract film and animation. A portfolio of his work can be found at his website -

Web Link - Tal Rosner

His talk was about his last four years of design work. He original began his art career with a Graphic Design degree at university studying composition and magazine design, but it was then he discovered his rhythm and movement, and began to translate graphic design to animation.

This first clip can be found at Rosner's website, called Doppelganger -

Web Link - Doppelganger Video

This animation was created in 2004 and the images were filmed at Docklands aboard a Lego train with which he attached a camera. This piece reminded me of the rhythm of the city brief we undertook in our second year. The aim was to create a video edit that responded to the images, and sounds of the city. The edits and speeds of shots in this clip correspond to the rhythm of the music, making it visual music. Some shots were then manipulated into graphic design compositions, which were very patterned and symmetrical. Perspective is the key element to all shots in this video, really creating a feeling of depth and journey.

This next piece he discussed can also be viewed on his website - Web Link - Stravinsky Concerto Video

Rosner was employed by two French Pianists who wanted him to create visual music for their piano music. This example is for a piece played by two pianos, and the visual concept is the same as Doppelganger, although the visuals are more horizontal based as opposed to the heavily perceptive shots of the first video. The use of classical music is a common practice found in most of his work. The main difference is that the screen is split into two to show the comparison between the two pianos, which I think is a nice concept as it has a certain cubist feel, the ability to see shots from different angles. These videos are all very British, the very dull sky's and urban landscapes, I therefore enjoyed the shots that used colour adjustments, which had a very nostalgic element on me, although they were so quick it was hard to pinpoint. The best example was when he used a contrast of dark blue and yellow, which gave me a feeling of a summer night.

Rosner next discussed Debussy en Blanc and Noir. I could find an example of this piece, but it follows the same Rhythmic format as his other work, yet have a more natural feel. Lots of shots of changing sky's, fields and trees.

One judgement I had on Rosners work was that it lacked simplistic at times. I love viewing animations that incorporate video, which is why I enjoy watching Title Sequences to film and T.V, but sometimes I think that a simplistic animation can have a great impact. I would love to work on a future project in the same style as Rosner, but to rotoscope the video images into a simplified, stencil or cartoon look.

His next piece, Five Easy Pieces, involved the deconstruction and reconstruction of a building. Perceptive is a important element again, and he used some structural silhouettes, which as stated before about simplistic, I would like to see more of.

The next piece of work was found on YouTube - Skins Season 2 Title Sequence





As discussed before, I have always been a fan of title sequences, and the title sequence to Skins has to be one of my favourites of all time, therefore I was amazed when I realised that Rosner created them.

The aim with his title sequences was not to be standard and show the people that play the characters, but to make the sequence about the characters the actors play. My favourite of the Skins intros was always the second seasons, and this was because of the way he used the logo to contain the footage and create the transitions. This sequence was to be, "less mischievous and more about relationships." I really look forward to seeing the opening for season 3.





Rosner next discussed his work he did visuals for an orchestra piece called 7 days, which is about the 7 days that god made the world. The idea would be amazing for a music video, because having performers create music in front of a visual rhythm really creates an epic mood. The project I am doing at the moment would conflict with the visual rhythms of this piece. My synaesthesia, which is associating words with colours, gives my a colour feeling for each day of the week, e.g. I get a brown feeling on a Thursday. The space section of the music really captured that effect perfectly. The space black, star white, sun yellows, with the galactic music complemented each other well.

The last piece of work he showed us was called Without You, which the title was based off a poem by artist Josef Albers who I have just currently researched on his colour theory. For this piece, his visuals follow the same format as his other work, although this time, the music is based off his collected sounds as opposed to classical music. These had a nice rhythm, which I was surprised about. This reminded me of the Rhythm and the City project I did last year in which I used sounds of the city to create a rhythm for my 3D visuals -

I really enjoyed seeing the work on Rosner, and especially enjoyed his discussion on the work of Skins. What I did find though was I wasn't too impressed with his presentation as a whole. He had to change disks, and locate videos, which I believe someone at his level, should be better prepared. I also found that he showed us examples of his work for too long, which started to lose my concentration at times. Overall though, the work he creates has fascinated me, and I hope to use his work as influences in my future projects.