Contemporary Color
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How to Rebuild The Sound of an Arena Concert: Sound Designer Lawrence Everson on Contemporary Color
Contemporary Color follows ten color guard troupes from across the country as they perform in multiple concerts put on by David Byrne in Toronto and Brooklyn. Crafted to appear to take place over one night at the Barclays Center in New York, the Ross brothers’ documentary places as much emphasis on the process of the show as it does the concert itself. Swiftly moving through the interior of the arena, into the stands, onto the stage, and even away from the arena entirely, Contemporary Color creates a visual landscape that sometimes moves into the abstract to recreate the environment of the performance. […]
by Marc Nemcik on Jun 23, 2016 -
Tribeca Critic’s Notebook #2: Obit and Contemporary Color
The day I sat down to write my second dispatch from Tribeca, Prince died. I took an hour to let the gut-punch settle. Most of us have that luxury, to just sit and sulk. Maybe we revisit an album or post a little thing on Facebook. We grieve that abstract grief over a person we never met. If you’re like me, you shut down and marinate in the art with a renewed appreciation. The subjects of Obit have a much harder job. They only get a minute to mourn. After that, they set about a seemingly impossible task: to encapsulate a […]
by Soheil Rezayazdi on Apr 24, 2016 -
“Here’s the Sporting Event Down by the Gym”: Bill and Turner Ross on Contemporary Color at Tribeca
Last year, David Byrne — capable of developing a deep enthusiasm for and knowledge of seemingly anything — held four concerts at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center. Ten color guard troops from across the country performed routines to songs written just for them by ten artists; performance highlights include Byrne himself, St. Vincent and Tuneyards. The Ross brothers’ Contemporary Color is a documentary of this unusual performance that refuses to just be a concert movie. The film regularly skips away from the arena altogether, lurking backstage with waiting performers or cutting back to individual performers seen, in dreamy almost-flashbacks, in their hometowns. Performances themselves are […]
by Vadim Rizov on Apr 14, 2016
