Architecture, Cinema and the Sublime

For all the great stories, images and artworks we may absorb in a media saturated lives, there occasionally comes along a creation of such beauty and artistry as to make us feel as though we are seeing art for the first time. The Third and the Seventh is a 12min short film by Alex Roman that explores the nexus between Architecture and Cinematography, between the Image and the Space. 

The title of the film refers to the set of seven arts - Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, Literature, Music, Dance
and Cinema. In truth the traditional Seven Liberal Arts that defined the western university concept were comprised of Grammar, Rhetoric, Logic, Arithmetic, Astronomy, Music and Geometry. So either Alex Roman is premising his film on Architecture+Cinema OR Logic+Geometry… In either case, the result is nothing short of astounding.

Knowing form the outset that the work is virtually entirely digitally composited 3D CGI (excepting skies and the man with the camera) I experienced the first 3 minutes astounded by the work as a technical exercise. But Third and Seventh quickly transcends the realm of pure technical craft to entire a sphere of sublime execution of ideas. In beautifully measured paces the film moves from hyper-real depiction to surreal experiences that are genuinely moving.

Having sat mesmerised through the work half a dozen times now Im am no closer to knowing if Im inspired by its mastery or utterly depressed that I’ll never make anything like this. I feel somewhat as Saleri did upon hearing Mozart; at the threshold of the sublime.

I have embedded the film below and I would implore you to hit the full-screen button, turn off the lights, out on your headphones and experience the film as it deserved to be seen.

WATCH THIRD AND SEVENTH IN HD ON VIMEO

Below is the compositing break-down showing the layers and processes of creating the Third and the Seventh.