STOCZNIA
{rightclick here to download / leftclick to watch movie}
STOCZNIA (2003) [Polish for "dockyard"] is a never-ending movement of a camera through the inner
space of an old industrial fabrication shed. The 17-minute work provides different points of view
of two parts of the building within one sequence. In this work the displacement of the observer is
not achieved on the image layer but rather over time in his/her memory.
The camera movement seems to follow the "Möbius Strip".
Screenshot
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PRODUCTION
The whole sequence is basically an animated movement of a virtual camera over still
footage material shot in high resolution.
I have shot the pictures together with Malgorzata Dobke in March 2003 at the old dockyards in Gdynia, Poland.
The process of capturing the sheds resembled photographic cartography. In every corner of the two buildings we took horizontal and vertical shots
that were later rendered into 360 degree panorama images. We took every shot
in the exactly same angel and distance to the walls.
Each panorama image consists of 13 - 16 seperate images.
Finally I came up with 14 panorama images which I used for the animation of the sequence.
As the camera moves continously over a large number of pixels and possible frames
I found that the best way to produce a storyboard was to use cutouts, scissors,
glue and the floor.
After a few days of tinkering and constantly turning my head
in all weired directions of the camera axis I ended up with a pretty detailed
storyboard, 2.8 meters in length.
Detail of the Storyboard
With the storyboard I went to Judith Ring. We started working on the sound and
images simultaneously for that we were not forced to develop the sound for the
image or the image for the sound. It was clear from the very beginning that both
parts will have an equal effect on the audience.
All the panorama images were loaded into After Effects and joined to one long image.
Actually I had to split the sequence into 5 parts becaus AFX is not able to handle
such big work areas effectively.
What was planned to take a few days finally took
a few months and very soon we came up with this nice little 17 min loop of which
you might have seen a sample sequence. If not, go to the top of this page
and download it now!
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Date of production: Summer 2003
DV PAL, loop, 17 min.
concept, realisation: Stefan Riekeles (D)
sound: Judith Ring (IR)
camera: Stefan Riekeles and Malgorzata Dobke (PL)