“Sparks Went Up” (火花上升): The Making of

It starts with an image in the mind, a thought of wonder then through the collaboration of great brainpower this beautiful bright red paper cutting and LED composition starts to evolve. Not with out all the hard work however…

Green screen up we start to film the firemen. Already suited and booted in all the right attire of course! This time island6 declines the real actors and decides to use their very own Director and Film artist Jean Le Guyader and David Keohane. This made for an extra fun filming session…

After the fun was over, conclusively filmed, and edited. We contacted our Jian Zhi 剪紙 (Chinese papercutting) artist to create a stunning hand-cut work of scissor magic.  After all this fun, finally  another pièce de résistance can be reveled to the world. Introducing “Sparks Went Up” (火花上升)by Liu Dao.

I saw it once – a tree growing in a house. That was another time; when I thought that this kind of thing was unique or exotic. I stared at that tree and envisioned the myriad ways it could figure into my imaginary domesticated life in that house. I could weave lights through its naked limbs in December. I could drape socks from this nub or that nub, and buzz around them while they changed colors on the spectrum from wet to dry. The tree would see so much, and be so much – my friend and champion, the tree. Maybe it would watch me write that novel I always knew was in my brain. Maybe it would see me lie on my couch and spew out those other languages I swore I would learn. Maybe it would see me fall in love with that needle-in-a-haystack-guy. The tree would never stand by as my heart breaks, or my pipes burst, or the bills pile up like my dreams were supposed to. That tree would grow so strong and tall; it would become what it was always destined to be. Its limbs would crash through windows on its way to greatness, while I pulled up my ripped tights on my way to dead-end interviews. I swear; I know that its leaves would use the wind as an excuse to scrape against each other and pass mocking jokes about me. The tree has got to go. The tree has got to burn. Adios, tree! See? I knew I could learn French.