HDSLR Artist Spotlight – Mike Pecci

I first became aware of Mike Pecci when we worked together on the music video for As I Lay Dying’s “Anodyne Sea.” Mike and Ian McFarland were co-directing the video for the metal band, and what struck me was their commitment to their craft, and their unwavering dedication to their ideals. In the video, the band takes a stand on free speech and pay the ultimate sacrifice at the end of the video when they’re murdered by the local warlords. Not many directors would have the courage to murder their artists on screen, but McFarland & Pecci pulled it off in grand style.

In addition to being a music video director, Pecci is a brilliant photographer who has invented a new way of delivering visuals online that he calls Living Images. Living Images are a hybrid of a still image and video, and uses a secret formula of the latest web technologies to deliver the characters in a suspended animation. The technology (which Pecci personally developed) coupled with Pecci’s talent for creating truly high-concept photography makes the Living Images a stunning and truly unique experiential web-deliverable.

Via Pecci “Water streams down the hardened face of a rock god, snow lightly drifts behind a gleaming product, a skateboarder is frozen doing a hand plant but his wheels are still spinning.  Moments captured in more than a photograph.  Moments captured in a Living Image.

Creating a Living Image requires a special type of shooting discipline and the use of cutting edge color grading, compositing, and encoding skills to create a seamless moment.   The Image is then delivered in either a standard or high definition image that has been sized for quality and loading time.  The average high definition is about the same size as a full resolution photograph, and each image can be easily intergraded into you existing web design.  This way you are giving the view of exciting content without the loading time of flash.”

Pecci’s Living Images are compelling enough that, in my mind, they thrust him to the forefront of creative commercial photographers in the twenty first century. But, as Steve Jobs is famous for saying, “There’s just one more thing.”

That “one more thing” is Pecci’s Grindhouse Shorts DVDs. Pecci has an affection for ’70s grindhouse films and has created a series of short films featuring women in highly charged (and very sexy roles) as both the heroine and the antagonist. I sat down with a glass of Oban and enjoyed all three of the Grindhouse films one evening. They’re definitely worth a watch, but definitely not for the kids! The DVDs are well executed, with tons of easter eggs. The highlight are the “Mom-entaries”, as Pecci does a director’s commentary with his mother. Brilliant!

I was lucky enough to interview Pecci about his work when I passed through Boston this summer. Take some time and explore his website. You will not be disappointed. And if you’re wondering who the next David Fincher is … wonder no more.

 

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