Nihilism and fashion clash in branded film

Director Harmony Korine and Bicoastal/Chicago/London-based The Whitehouse’s editor Adam Robinson find fashion amidst urban decay in a raw new 4:20 branded short film, “Act Da Fool,” for fashion label Proenza Schouler, direct-to-client. The 8mm experimental piece features young, Proenza Schouler-clad outsiders navigating the forgotten backstreets of Nashville, TN. Visit http://www.proenzaschouler.com/shop/ to experience “Act Da Fool.”

Korine received carte blanche from designers Lazaro Hernandez and Jack McCollough to create a project featuring Proenza Schouler’s Autumn/Winter 2010 collection. The film was shot in Korine’s hometown and styled by Mel Ottenberg.

Says editor Adam Robinson, “Harmony has an instinctive and loose style that allows for much experimentation in the edit.”

“Harmony took the elements from our collection of a girl who is both naïve and knowing, very innocent and very American, and created a story based on his setting and experiences,” says Hernandez. “We grew up watching Harmony’s films—it all starts with Kids, of course, which was hugely influential on us and everyone in our generation.”

“Act Da Fool” opens on a series of urban images, the first of which focuses in on a pair of skinny jeans guised in white paint “scribbles.” Stylized vignettes follow, showcasing the girls’ nihilistic worldview and love of booze, drugs and vandalism.

The piece is accompanied by the emotionally void narration of one of the teen models. The tread-upon adolescent confesses, “The earth is a big ball of shit… everyone gonna die sooner of later.” We then see the gang of girls imbibing 40 oz malt liquor and smoking cigarettes while we hear, “I love cigarettes so much. I hope I don’t die for a long time, though. I still got things I want to look at.” The scenes transition to a hazier perspective where the teen admits she and her, “Gang of fools… act like little babies sometimes. It’s us against the world.” The girls defiantly ‘flick the bird’ to the camera as our narrator states, “Church can suck it,” while also conceiving that they can, “Make it out of this dead-end town.” The film closes on the girls passed out in a parking lot as the dawn of a new day arrives with the idea that, “The stars never gonna leave us.”

About The Whitehouse

The Whitehouse is a film editing company. 

It opened in 1990, in a little white house in Soho, London. The company had three editors, some rented equipment and a sofa bed from Ikea that wouldn’t fold out. They worked hard, won some awards and had a laugh. Life was good. Life was simple. Then some smarty pants invented a computer to edit film on. They bought one, because everyone else had one and they didn’t want to be left out.
Twenty years later, The Whitehouse has provided the editing on Oscar winning movies, award-winning commercials, Emmy-winning TV shows, documentaries and music videos.
The Whitehouse now has offices in London, New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. Many people have come and gone over the years. Some have come, gone and come again. But one thing has remained constant.
The Whitehouse cuts film.

Credits:
Client: Proenza Schouler
Title: “Act Da Fool” 4:20
Post Date: September 1st, 2010
Production Company:
Director: Harmony Korine
Editor: Adam Robinson
Editorial Company: The Whitehouse, Bicoastal/Chicago/London
Agency: Direct-to-client
Stylist: Mel Ottenberg
Producer: Scott Pierce
Music: Brian Kotzur
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