The Power Of Pleasure : Decoding The Art Of Visual Seduction by Matthew Rolston (excerpt)
I began teaching at my alma mater ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, California over a decade ago. It came about because, way back in 1998, I created a scholarship at the College, one that I continue to actively support. It’s called the Matthew Rolston Scholarship for Film and Creative Direction, and it focuses on communications, not photography – which is a direct reflection of my evolution in the world of editorial, entertainment and advertising imaging.
I left ArtCenter’s photography and imaging program in the late 70s. After about ten years of operating a fairly extensive commercial photography practice, I began to take on a larger role with my entertainment and advertising clients. It started with me simply working for them as a photographer. But many of those clients began asking if I would be willing to take on the direction of their music videos and TV spots, in addition to my photography work.
This was a period in which, for the first time, well-known photographers were being tapped to direct the moving image. I didn’t feel comfortable just jumping into an arena that I didn’t know much about; the moving image is a considerably different practice than still photography. So I decided to return to ArtCenter, this time in order to attend the film school. I needed to know the history of film, the ‘language’ of film, and being the detailed person that I am, I needed to know the name of every kind of light, theatrical colored gel, film camera and lens system, etc. You can’t paint a great picture if you don’t know the names of the colors in the box!
This addition to my practice proved to be somewhat successful. So successful that I became a kind of hybrid photographer-director. Later in the process, my clients asked me to contribute to the conception of the projects themselves, or even help develop the ‘pitches’, treatments and scripts. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was receiving on-the-job training for what is commonly referred to in my field as a ‘creative director’.
I soon became a kind of ‘one-stop shop’ – clients could come to me for research and development, strategy, pitches, concepts, scripts, and ultimately, the production of all elements. It wasn’t uncommon for me to create, for example with a musical artist, an album cover package, all of the print imagery collateral including posters and billboards, PR imagery, their ‘tour book’, and the kickoff music video to appear on MTV. Our studio also provided behind-the-scenes documentary coverage through a secondary unit I created called R-Roll. The title R-Roll was a joke on the then-industry practice of creating what’s called ‘b-roll’ – that is, documentary coverage. The idea was: “Imagine if you could have Matthew Rolston creative direct your b-roll!”
The same pattern applied to my advertising work, where I could create all of the print assets, from magazine ads to billboards, at the same time that I wrote and directed the TV spots. Of course, I worked directly with my clients’ advertising agencies, not solely on my own.
For my scholarship at ArtCenter, I included mentorship for its recipient. I would allow that scholarship student to attend every part of my production process and shoot. They would be intimately involved, observing every part of the process.
This proved to be very effective, and the College took notice. They asked me many times if I would be willing to take what I knew and turn it into an original class. That’s how ArtCenter often operates – most of the ‘studio’ classes are taught by alumni who have created original curricula based on personal experience. The College asked many times, but the answer was always “no”. I was just too busy, and honestly too self-involved, to take time out to do such a thing.
But then my life shifted, and I wanted to give to others. I began to develop a wholly original class in advertising strategy for luxury products, in particular high-end fragrance. My curriculum encompassed a wide range of skills, from research, development and strategy, to concept and scriptwriting, photography, filmmaking, editing, music and sound design, motion graphics, and so much more. It took me over a year to write the syllabus. The class consists of fourteen lectures over fourteen weeks, each four hours long. That’s a lot of content to develop.
I work closely in collaboration with my students as they create concepts, research and strategic documents, detailed mood boards, and finally, a 0:45 second spec film for a luxury perfume.
These sophisticated short communication films are made from found imagery and audio – running the gamut from still photography to film clips, from classical to pop music – any media that’s appropriate, with one proviso: they can’t use any other advertising photography or films as repurposed content.
For a number of years, The Power of Pleasure’s final projects were presented in the typical 16:9 horizontal aspect ratio. But recently, with the understanding that most people under the age of forty don’t watch television at all (they’re glued to their mobile devices) – we abandoned the horizontal film-style format entirely in favor of a vertical 16:9 execution. This format fits mobile devices. One has to be realistic about where the viewers are!
We also began to add screen graphics of the voiceover texts, with the realization that a great many people scroll through Instagram and TikTok ‘reels’ without sound. These new spec perfume spots, formatted for mobile viewing, had to communicate successfully with or without sound.
I learned a few things along the way – first, teaching is learning.
Matthew Rolston
HERMÈS: “FOREVER FREE”
Hermès Fragrances: Galop d’Hermès | Written and directed by Amanda Mei
Instructor/Creative Director: Matthew Rolston
GUCCI: “IT’S LIKE SUGAR!”
Gucci Fragrances: Flora | Written and directed by Hannah Arellano
Instructor/Creative Director: Matthew Rolston
SAINT LAURENT: “PLAY ON”
Yves Saint Laurent: Vinyle | Written and directed by Sisley Loubet
Instructor/Creative Director: Matthew Rolston
DIOR: “ALL I WANT”
Dior: New Look 1947 | Written and directed by Abby Li
Instructor/Creative Director: Matthew Rolston
https://vimeo.com/1128931190/a3c1960462?share=copy&fl=sv&fe=ci
DIOR: “DEEP ROSE”
Dior: Rose Kabuki | Written and directed by Shawn Zhao
Instructor/Creative Director: Matthew Rolston
https://vimeo.com/1128933668/438678a2eb?share=copy&fl=sv&fe=ci
DIOR: “WILD RIDE”
Dior: Balade Sauvage | Written and directed by Robin Kim
Instructor/Creative Director: Matthew Rolston
https://vimeo.com/1128930775/1e075eb091?share=copy&fl=sv&fe=ci
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