Research into Tarsem Singh - Inspiration and technique

Tarsem Singh has amazed me now with two excellent films under his belt and with a whole range of excellently executed music videos from artists like REM to Deep Forest, along with an amazing collection of at least one hundred directed commercials. His most famous and most praised commercial to date is the more outlandish Pepsi advert - Gladiators, shown below.

Another one of Singh's best works is the advert Voodo for Levi's. This was however banned from ever being shown publicaly due to an innapropriate message.

I simply love his two feature films however, The Fall and The Cell because of their outlandish visual magnificence. The creative element in his films that make each and every frame appear more like a photography than a video is stunning. In the Fall or example the opening sequence simply looks like a collection of black and white photographs strung together, you could stop it at any time and see a brilliantly framed and composed photograph. (Shown below)

I love the composition of the frames, especially the ones in the desert or vast lonely landscapes, they are amazing. There is such simplicity and bleakness, I just love how they have been composed with the landscape being dominant over the characters and cast. Something I know I will not be able to do, but would love to do in my own short film. Also below is an example of his magnificient ability to shown one landscape, or character, and turn them into something else. The example below is the monk into the snowy mountains.

The Fall trailer.

Singh's other unbelievable achievement is his first feature film, The Cell. A psychological thriller that gives you a real head trip when you watch it.

"This is 'SEVEN' meets 'SEVEN' for the post- 'SEVEN' generation." - Q magazine

"Jennifer Lopez sizzles! In a 'SILENCE OF THE LAMBS' style psychological thriller." - Vogue

I simply love to hate and be disgusted at this film. The visual style once again is breathtaking, his ability to manipulate these magnificently preserved and beautiful places in the world into weird and wonderful dream like landscapes for his film is brilliant. And his ability to disgust in The Cell, is also brilliant. I myself am a big fan of anything disgusting/disturbing macabre/twisted and also bright/elegant beautiful/enchanting; The Cell does both for me. On one hand you have the vast desert landscape seen later again in 2006 with The Fall matched against the dark and twisted rooms of the serial killers brain. Below are snippets of the film at two points, the brighter 'happier' scenario and the dark and video game like memories.

He is also hugely inspired by artworks, such as Damien Hirst and Odd Nerdrum, artworks that you can see replicated in his own work.

I myself love the twisted characters he has created for the film, and how they replicate something almost from the video game Silent Hill and also how you can see he is inspired by artists like Marilyn Manson and their music videos.

Stills from The Nobodies music video by Marilyn Manson

One a website I was searching on for information about Singh's inspirational background, I came across an interesting comparison one writer has looked at, between Tarsem Singh and Mark Romanek. I myself had never heard of Romanek but after hearing that he directed the $5million Madonna music video for Bedtime Stories I was instntly familiar with hsi work, along with Nine Inch Nails - Closer. (I have recently found out however that Tarsem is hugely inspired by Mark Romaneks work and so the following work is slightly pointless as I know now that he was inspired by him.

"I have read that this is based on Islamic symbolism. I have no idea if that is true or not, but on the left is Romanek's "Bedtime Story" and on the right is Tarsem's The Fall." - Brad Brevet (Ropeofsilicon.com)

Brevet is right, when you compare the two pieces next to each other you really can see the huge inspiration that Romanek was on Tarsem.

The same with this scene, you can see the extreme similarity between the two directors work.

- I guess I am in fact inspired by Tarsem who was inspired by Romanek so, Romanek is my key source of inspiration. -

Comparison between Romanek and Tarsem courtesy of;
http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/article/comparing_tarsems_fall_and_cell_to_romaneks_bedtime_story 29th September 2010

The Cell Trailer