User:Ideasperson/sandbox


 * ''"This is a documentary about a marriage that went wrong, and it just so happens that the bride and groom are blind. Their blindness is secondary, almost incidental to what happens...the director has a special need, Denis Piel a highly successful photographer whose fashion spreads and celebrity portraits for glossy magazines have earnt him a considerable international reputation. He’s also directed many stylish commercials for cosmetic products and fashion houses. He lives in a world where everything is visual, elegant and excruciatingly sophisticated. Like many fashion photographers, he seems to be trying to expiate guilts by having another life, by walking away from the values of the profession....."
 * ".....By dealing with blindness, he has entirely turned his back on the world of visual experience. In his muted colours, with his static camera, in his disinclination to use the editing tricks of the fashion commercial, Piel denies everything he has learnt, everything that is instinctive to this profession...That a fashion photographer should seek some sort of redemption in the story of a blind couple isn’t surprising. What is surprising is that he has learnt a new craft so quickly, that he has learnt so quickly to tell a story in a way that’s antithetical to what he does for a living. Every temptation to show off, and most opportunities to make editorial comment, are denied. Piel’s discipline throughout is exemplary, and the minimalism of his approach makes the story all but unendurable. This is a film that you wish was over. At the same time, it’s a film that you can neither escape nor forget."
 * ".....By dealing with blindness, he has entirely turned his back on the world of visual experience. In his muted colours, with his static camera, in his disinclination to use the editing tricks of the fashion commercial, Piel denies everything he has learnt, everything that is instinctive to this profession...That a fashion photographer should seek some sort of redemption in the story of a blind couple isn’t surprising. What is surprising is that he has learnt a new craft so quickly, that he has learnt so quickly to tell a story in a way that’s antithetical to what he does for a living. Every temptation to show off, and most opportunities to make editorial comment, are denied. Piel’s discipline throughout is exemplary, and the minimalism of his approach makes the story all but unendurable. This is a film that you wish was over. At the same time, it’s a film that you can neither escape nor forget."
 * ".....By dealing with blindness, he has entirely turned his back on the world of visual experience. In his muted colours, with his static camera, in his disinclination to use the editing tricks of the fashion commercial, Piel denies everything he has learnt, everything that is instinctive to this profession...That a fashion photographer should seek some sort of redemption in the story of a blind couple isn’t surprising. What is surprising is that he has learnt a new craft so quickly, that he has learnt so quickly to tell a story in a way that’s antithetical to what he does for a living. Every temptation to show off, and most opportunities to make editorial comment, are denied. Piel’s discipline throughout is exemplary, and the minimalism of his approach makes the story all but unendurable. This is a film that you wish was over. At the same time, it’s a film that you can neither escape nor forget."

Piel’s progression into independent filmmaking opened up areas of exploration in relation to raising capital to stay independent. He determined the only way to do that was through innovative fundraising ideas. He had self financed Love is Blind and wanted to continue independently; having participated in ‘breakfast meetings’ in Hollywood, Piel realised that this was not the path he wished to pursue as he needed to maintain total creative control of his projects.

During the next several years Piel explored various film projects and attended film festivals with Love is Blind as well as shooting many TV commercials in France, Germany and Australia. This period found Piel working in Australia, the USA, France, Kenya, Italy, Iceland, Estonia, the UK, Portugal, Holland, Spain and Germany, this included shooting a new campaign for Donna Karan and DKNY as well continuing to shoot for Helena Rubinstein.

During this time he was busy writing and researching scripts. IORA, his first fiction feature was written with Ted Horton, the advertising guru behind the internationally acclaimed Wool Board advertising campaign which Piel and Horton had worked on together in the 1980s. IORA and self financing took Piel off on a new venture. With the idea of using it as the vehicle to finance and promote the film, Piel, with perfumier Michael Moisseeff, created an original scent; to be called IORA, after the lead character, an Australian Ethnomusicologist, the original perfume evoked scents of Australia and Piel’s childhood. The project included bottle design and packaging.

During this period he also wrote a TV concept for a reality show called Encounters, researched the possibility with the author, Luke Rhinehard to make the book Diceman into a feature film and researched, interviewed and wrote for another original film, Spindrift a romantic thriller set in Italy and Africa. All the time he was commuting to France having bought Château de Padies where his wife, Elaine with their son, Olivier were now living and supervising the restoration of the property, what was to become a seven year project. In 1999 the whole family moved back to Manhattan and new adventures.