Take a Picture: Building the Prototype
During the winter of 2009, Brad Blucher and Kyle Clements spent three long days building a prototype for Take a Picture. This prototype, titled smile was built to show quality. We needed to make sure that Take a Picture would work as well in reality as it did in our imaginations. Ideas are cheap. The challenge is to make them a reality.
This video reveals our very strict and formal working habits and attitude.




Take a Picture: Testing the Prototype
In March, 2009, a small group of people were shown smile, the prototype for the Take a Picture series. The purpose of this pilot show was to test the project in a real world situation, to see how a general audience would respond, and help us iron out any unforeseen technical issues. While none of this actual show was documented, we did film a rough introductory video.
This video does 2 important things: introduce the project, and show the world what Kyle looks and acts like after three back-to-back 20 hour work days.




Do it Yourself Electronics: Printing and Etching Circuit Boards
In this video, Brad demonstrates how we print out and etch our circuit boards. Do-it-yourself (DIY) PCB's can sound challenging to the uninitiated, but its really not all that complicated once you have the knowledge and supplies.




Construction Paper
In this short behind-the-scenes clip, Brad describes one of the little things that can go wrong when long hours and little sleep collide. In this video, Brad and I show you our method for getting precise images on the masonite. The first step is creating an image on the compuer, and turning that image into a number of evenly spaced dots. Using a program called Posterazor, we then blow up that image to the desired scale, and print out the image, which is now spread across multiple sheets of paper. Then we line up the sheets of paper, tape them to the masonite, and drill holes through each of the dots. After all that, it's a simple matter of popping the lights through the holes.




Take a Picture: Why Kyle Isn't Using Power Tools
In this short behind-the-scenes clip, Brad describes one of the little things that can go wrong when long hours and little sleep collide.




Take a Picture: Under Construction
While we were building these invisible paintings, I had my camera firing off photos every few seconds to create a series of time lapse sequences. The photos were used to create this video. I wish we could work this fast in real life.




Pre-Nuit Blanche Sneak Peek
Here is a quick video I shot while we were setting up for Scotiabank Nuit Blanche 2010. I pan around the room twice. Once before the hanging, and once again after most of them have been put up.




Take a Picture: Show Time
We couldn't spend 13 hours at an event titled "Take a Picture" and not take some footage ourselves. Here is some footage from the day of the event. This includes footage from last minute setup to the event itself.




Drilling holes and swapping LEDs
Here is some footage of us re-using parts from old pieces to assemble new pieces. The masonite templates are saved, so each image can be re-created when needed




Take a Picture: Up Close and Impersonal
This short, 40-second video uses macro photography to show off every detail of the components that go into our invisible paintings. The parts start off as piles of components, but by the end of this video, we have a fully functional circuit producing the invisible light that makes this project work.
For both artists, this was their first experience shooting HD video with a DSLR. For this shoot, a Nikon D7000 with the AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D Lens was used. A macro extension tube was placed between the camera body and lens, allowing for a very close-up perspective.
You can watch it right here in the embedded window below, or go to YouTube and watch the video in 720p High-Definition.