3D Becomes Lyrical in Nice Shoes' Poetically-Inspired Short Films

New York-based creative studio Nice Shoes is premiering two lyrical 3D short films conceived, shot and produced entirely in-house. The films are part of a poetically-inspired series entitled Verses and directed by creative directors Brian Bowman and Aron Baxter.

"We picked poetry because it isn't an obvious choice for 3D," says Bowman. "Blue aliens on a planet far, far away makes a lot more sense in stereo, so we were just curious to find out if a visceral experience can be made more profound and emotional through stereography." Bowman and Baxter shot their respective short films last November with veteran stereographers Eric Robertson and Ross Heran.

Found, directed by Brian Bowman and starring model Stef van der Laan, is an abstract investigation of an anonymous poem he found on a Manhattan street. Locked out of his studio one Sunday morning during a particularly stressful commercial job, the short verse was written on scrap paper and blew up against his foot.

Heartbreaker features digital type and stars New York-based Trinidadian poet and graphic designer Rico Frederick. As he recites his poem, also titled Heartbreaker, he appears to fragment and then dissolve typographically into his own words.

The directors have been producing the experimental shorts in a 3D post pipeline for four months in addition to their regular client work. Once principal photography was complete, two different post workflows evolved: Flame and Nuke for Baxter and After Effects for Bowman.

"The overall process for us has been very informative for us in terms of knowing how to shoot, construct and compose our shots," says Baxter. "To know how far to push things, and when to be conservative with stereo 3D is something we've grappled with on a daily basis."

"We tried to make the decisions that would give us the most flexibility throughout the entire process," adds Bowman, "in order to ensure the creative was the best it could possibly be."