October 2021
Plastic Lobster: Where Dance, Fashion and Summery Seduction Intersect
Official Selection of the London Fashion Film Festival and winner of the Open Vision Film Festival, Cardboard Stage’s newest collaboration takes a French New Wave approach.
Plastic Lobster, filmed in Miami, Florida in the summer of 2021 is nothing short of sexy, vibrant and entertaining.
The short film, running only at 1 minute and 53 seconds, swiftly takes the viewer into three women’s intimate personal worlds. Plastic Lobster took inspiration from acclaimed French designer Jacquemus’s SS21 Campaign in addition to the movies ‘The Dreamers’, ‘Loro’, and ‘Pierrot Le Fou’. With movement and fashion at the forefront of the film, dancers Dasha Schwartz, Brooklyn Gallagher and Hannah Fischer bring to life the mind of director Kit Pilosof.
“My creative process starts with taking reference from cinema. This began because I was inspired by French new wave cinema for its stylistic and rebellious choices,” Pilosof said. The direction style of Pilosof takes the viewer into each character's world with unique, sweeping cuts, angels and compelling creative direction.
“There was no dancing in the actual films,” said Pilosof. This provided a new challenge for Cardboard Stage to interpret the films themselves in a new way- through the lens of movement. Choreographer Dasha Schwartz pulled her ideas for the composition and movement direction from specific movie scenes and characters dialogues. For example, the final montage of Fischer’s character in the pink dress was inspired from the “playful nature of the dialogue between two characters,” in Pierrot Le Fou, said Schwartz.
Additionally, Cardboard Stage collaborated with Miami based stylist, Manuela Gutierrez and Glasgow based composer, Tiiva on the project. “We always try to work with an all female identifying crew at Cardboard Stage,” said Schwartz.
The film's name, “Plastic Lobster” came about from Schwartz and Pilosof frantically running around Miami trying to find a real lobster to use in the film. “It was Good Friday and all of the seafood was sold out. Everything in Miami was plastic and showy so we went with Plastic Lobster,” Pilosof laughed. In one of Pilosof’s inspiration movies, a woman wears a headpiece similar to Gallagher’s character naked in a bathtub full of champagne with a real lobster. “We wanted to stick to the absurdity of the films,” Schwartz said.
The award-winning film can be viewed on cardboardstage.com.