I thought up this idea last summer, wanting to create my own screen tests for a video.
It turned out even better than I imagined, which I feel like is none of my doing, and is really about the charisma of my subjects.
I had noticed something in the Warhol tests that came true in these… somewhere around the 2-minute mark, people’s faces change, like they get bored enough to put their guard down. There’s a vulnerability there and it feels like you can read their thoughts or at least get a true read on their emotional state.
For this video, I took 30 seconds from around that 2-minute mark, and sped part of it up so it was 7-8 seconds total.
One of my favorite things about Warhol’s screen tests are the little variations, and I love the variations in these: Ashleigh with the lollipop, Catherine with the water, Allie from far away, Jordan outside, etc.
I thought it was interesting that the three people who declined my request were all men. Two of them said they don’t like the way they look and didn’t want to have to look at their own faces. We talk about women being image-conscious but men are too!
The last few seconds is my favorite part of the video. My aging computer really had a hard time handling that.
The background sound is 300 hz, stock recording, and the birds in my backyard.
PREORDER LINK HERE: https://softskull.com/books/you-are-the-snake-2/
I like it, it has that late-night local community television station program feel to it. Screen tests are so captivating.
Excellent! Beautifully handled. Some of the best Art I've experienced in a while.