Please tell us how the concept for Mimic evolved?
I don’t know exactly how but at a certain point I got the idea to create something very fast, violent and nonsensical. When I listened to Yu Miyashita’s music I thought his track Mimic, in particular, was the perfect piece – short enough and extremely dense. So I started to work on it.
How did your collaboration with the musician Yu Miyashita come about?
I discovered his album Noble Niche, released in 2011 by electronic music label Mille Plateaux. I’d already worked with Mille Plateaux and the label’s owner Marcus Gabler had always given me total creative freedom on the previous collaborations. I realised this video as a personal project without any budget, however when Yu and Marcus saw the final result they were enthusiastic.
Tell us a bit about yourself. Are you freelance or signed to a production company?
I studied composition, piano, guitar, choral music and architecture. I ended up doing this work mostly by chance. I’m self taught in digital filmmaking, working freelance and representing myself.
So far I have produced all my releases, taking care of every aspect from concept, design, modeling, animation, rendering, shooting when required, compositing, editing, postproduction and sometimes music and sound design too.[See more of Lucio Arese’s work in Related Content].
Were you holed up in a dark room day and night forever making Mimic?
I live in Cuneo, a small city in North Italy. Mimic was shot in an old cattle market nearby. Except for the filming, all the work was done at my home workstation and it took about six months for completion, though not fulltime.
Please tell us about the process: the software used, and why you made the decisions to use particular kit?
I used 3d Studio MAX for the production, Syntheyes for camera tracking and Combustion for compositing/editing/postproduction. This is the usual software for my production pipeline. A Canon HD handycam was used to shoot the live footage.
What was the most difficult aspect of creating Mimic?
I guess the whole work in itself, coordinating and keeping all the elements in mind was difficult sometimes. I don’t use any automated/generative software for the audiovisual synching, I analyse music by ear and usually work almost frame by frame.
Anything else?
I’m planning new, bigger budget projects. We’ll see what happens.
