REBECCA PLATER | VISUAL ARTIST
BRINGING THE OUTSIDE WORLD IN
GARRY FERRIER | 23 APR 2024
Sometimes a project comes along that feels like just the right thing at just the right time. This has never been more true for us than when we were kindly invited out to spend some time with creator and visual artist, Rebecca Plater, at her beautiful home studio in the countryside of Fife.
The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and the serene views from her studio windows created a real moment of calm in what had been an especially hectic month of work.
Our mission was to work with Rebecca in creating a new brand film to showcase her work and the ethos her business as well as introducing her brand new range of hand-painted homeware products.
It became clear to us immediately that so much of the identity and motivation behind Plater’s work was firmly routed in her own personal transformative story. So we pitched the idea of producing a short documentary style piece that delved deeper into her own backstory to show the depth of the journey that she has been on to arrive at her current processes and works of art and demonstrate the greater meaning these new products represent.
We spent time in the studio capturing a range of her artistic activities from clay sculpting to watercolour painting to mono-printing with an awesome vintage press machine. We also sat down with Rebecca in informal conversation about her story and her work - the audio from which would provide us with the narrative bedrock of the film and would allow us to create a concise and effective communication of the story through editing.
We then headed out to her herbal kitchen in the back garden where she demonstrated the natural food preparation and herbal remedies that have become an integral part of her life and well-being in recent years.
Finally we headed out from the house into the surrounding woodlands to capture Rebecca as she connects with nature and forages for the materials that she uses in both her art studio and herbal kitchen.
We shot this film on vintage prime lenses that have a lovely organic quality which blended perfectly with Rebecca’s aesthetic and the feel of the film. We especially love the swirly textured bokeh effect this gives to the trees and out-of-focus areas of the image which helps to separate Rebecca as the main subject in the frame.
Despite an absolutely packed shooting schedule, we still managed to find the time to connect with Rebecca on subjects like work/life balance, prioritising family, and the importance of exposure to the natural world, and came away from the experience genuinely refreshed and inspired.
