Merge brought the same passion for beautiful design that Nau creates in their sustainable line of clothing to a ground-breaking digital cinema installation in their Soho store.

Working closely with Eugenie Frerichs of Nau and Rodrigo de la Parra of Hopr, Merge designed multi-panel motion picture vignettes that evoked the Nau philosophy and esthetic - clothing for artists, activists and athletes: beautiful spaces (Ace Hotel, Sandbox Studios), considered lifestyle choices (bike commute in the rain, Sweet Pea Bike Shop) and ambient scenes (migrating geese).

We shot for six days on location in and around Portland, Oregon, making the most of advance scouting done by Tahni Holt and Eugenie Frerichs, while staying true to Merge's editorial improvisation style (see the geese vignette). 

Nau's spiritual home, Portland is a wonderful city; a unique blend of sustainable urban architecture, transportation and landscapes, alongside amazing parks and old growth forests.
We shot mostly slow-motion and timelapse with Merge's  Red camera and used Scratch DI tools to grade and transfer the 4K and 3K images.

Jean-Pierre Viellet of Siteworks made invaluable contributions in the physical installation bringing years of expertise in designing cutting edge retail interiors.

The installation is running on 5 Mac minis networked together using a fantastic shareware video installation program called Multiscreener, designed by Zach Poff (thank you Zach!) that keeps all 5 HD streams in sync.
The end result is a magnificent series of vignettes that run on a loop, projected on three 6'x4' windows and a giant 21' skylight, beamed from 5 projectors.  The experience is akin to walking through a cathedral with video stained glass, best viewed after dusk.
 
Driven by Design

a video installation at Here/Nau/NYC, 69 Mercer St. through December 31st.

Project lead: Jerome Thelia

Portland crew:
Creative Director for Nau: Eugenie Frerich
Cinematography: David McLain, Jerome Thelia, AC
Production Coordinator: Tahni Holt

Design/Post: Rodrigo de la Parra, Makoto Sato, Chris Difiore, Hopr.com and Jerome Thelia, colorist

Installation build masters: Erin Smith, David Henry Haan, Jean-Pierre Viellet, Steve White

www.nau.com