Coming soon: Artwork and Animations for the German Design Award ceremony 2012,
this time created in cooperation with three adorable dancers of the Forsythe Company!

Director: Oliver Hardt / Signature Films
Art Direction: Markus Weisbeck, Anina Beuchert / Surface
Dancers: Yoko Ando, Katja Cheraneva, Josh Johnson / The Forsythe Company
Media production: tvt .film+vfx
Music: Brassroots (UK)

Client: German Design Council

For the award ceremonies 2008 – 2011 check out our project website.

Four years of preparation, one year of shooting and editing – we are very happy to announce the completion of a powerful 100 minutes documentary. The film by Oliver Hardt and Darius James explores how African-based spirituality has informed America´s popular culture. It shows that the old African gods have taken on new forms since their arrival on North America’s shores. Their spirit now manifests itself in turn-table wizardry, improvisational skills and mind-blowing collages, rituals and performances.

To learn more about the film please visit the official website  and the film´s Facebook page.

surface motion is a collaboration between director Oliver Hardt (signature films) and art director Markus Weisbeck (surface). The project started in 2008, when they began collaborating on the creative direction of the annual German Design Award ceremony, the country‘s highest distinction in the field of design. In the following years they created a series of expressive artworks for the internationally renowned event.

Their artistic approach integrates multiple disciplines, including modernist film experiments, cutting-edge analogue and digital motion graphics, spatial projections, stage design, and stage direction.

www.surfacemotion.de

I recently found this MTV-version of a music videos I produced in 1999 on Youtube. It is based on the super 8-film flowersandleaves by artist Sunah Choi and a track from Albrecht Kunze´s debut album Testarchiv.

For a period of two months, Darius James, the author of That´s Blaxploitation!!!! and Negrophobia, and German director and filmmaker Oliver Hardt (Black Deutschland) embark on a journey into the fabric of African-rooted, urban creativity. Their aim is to find voodoo’s contemporary forms of expression in music, arts and culture and to learn about their universal spiritual sources. Through meetings with musicians, writers and artists, miracle healers and gumbo cooks, Mississippi Blues men and black Elvis imitators, this documentary draws a picture of a culture that has always been hybrid and porous, and which has drawn on its unique mix of different ethnic influences to produce its cultural diversity, allure, and vitality.

Principal shooting begins on April 7 in New Haven, Ct.

ITINERARY:

• New Haven, CT / April 7 – 11

• New York City, NY / April 12 – 21 // Photo Gallery

• New Orleans, LA / April 22 – May 2 // Photo Gallery
  

• Memphis, TN and Greenwood, MS / May 3 – 8 // Photo Gallery
  

• San Francisco, CA / May 9 -12

• Seattle, WA / May 13 – 14

• Chicago, IL / May 16 – 17 // Photo Gallery
  

• New York City, New Jersey, New Haven / May 18 – 25 // Photo Gallery
  

Research, development and production is partially funded by ZDF/arte and the Hessen Film Fund.

Award ceremony, exhibitions and after party: The entire day in a nutshell

Handcrafted Motion Design / Making Of

One of 66 widescreen HD-projections we´ve been creating for the German Design Award ceremony in 2011. Projection screen size on location: 15 x 3 meters (50 x 10 ft.) Check out our facebook gallery for setup photos.

Client: German Design Council
Director: Oliver Hardt / Signature Films
Art Direction: Markus Weisbeck, John Russo / Surface
Media Production: Christel Brunn, Michael Wagner / tvt .film+vfx
Music: Brandt Brauer Frick

A quick edit of some video footage from our second reseach trip to the U.S. of Hoodoo (New Haven, New York, Oakland and San Francisco). Principal photography begins in April. Stay tuned!

Brand New Germany: The official campaign film for Germany´s partnership with the 2011 edition of the Business of Design Week (BODW) in Hongkong, one of Asia’s most important events for design and brand management.

Client: German Design Council
Director: Oliver Hardt, Signature Films
Art Direction: Thomas Lauterberg
Animation: Michael Wagner, tvt .film+vfx
Music: Michael Kadelbach

Campaign logo by MetaDesign

Minimalistic stage design by Martina Spiegl for the 13th edition of the edit filmmaker´s festival award ceremony: Projection screen, desk and table (set up)

I shot my latest documentary film for arte, Black Deutschland (2006) already with Darius James, the author of That´s Blaxploitation!!!!, Negrophobia and Voodoo Stew. The way in which he develops existential stories from small, precise daily observations, has fascinated me since our very first meeting. He gave Black Deutschland irony and an additional perspective, and enthusiastically took on the role of the enfant terrible. When Darius sent me the first draft of The United States of Hoodoo at the end of shooting Black Deutschland I was enthusiastic about his concept of a very special kind of road movie – a trip to the hidden spiritual roots of American culture and, at the same time, a radical questioning of the common ideas of identity, religion and spirituality.