Todd Eckert for Tin Drum

with Anne Clark “St. Vincent“, Annie-B Parson, Lizzie DeMent and Oana Botez

You For Is This, 2017

“In 2017 I had an idea for a project in which two characters - both different parts of the same person - would be played by my friend Annie Clark aka St Vincent. Annie is one of the smartest, most genuinely curious people I know, and we both recognized this would be a tough project to pull off. Besides, we always said that if there was any part of the project that felt like less than it should be, the public would never see it.

Initially I called it Exquisite Corpse - an intentional pun/bastardization of the legendary surrealist parlour game - but it eventually evolved into You For Is This. The piece involved an ambitious process of choreography by Annie-B Parson, volumetric capture by 4D Views in Grenoble, body double work by Lizzie DeMent and costuming by Oana Botez.

And it was ultimately just too ambitious for where Mixed Reality technology was at that time. We tried - everyone flew to France and shot for a couple days and there were moments I thought we’d actually bring it together. But ultimately the results just weren’t good enough. These artists deserved more than we - truly than anyone - could provide.

This is the first time I’ve looked at the script, sketches and capture stills in several years. The gorgeous story boards by George Fuentes - my notes from rehearsals - there’s definitely something there. Perhaps . . . “ Todd Eckert

Todd Eckert is the founder of Tin Drum, a media production collective that works with Mixed Reality technology.

www.tindrum.io

@tindrumio