Royal College of Art
Dr Godofredo Pereira
The Royal College of Art (RCA) is internationally renowned. In 2020 it was named the world's leading art and design university for the fifth consecutive year. This short video profile was commissioned as part of the 'Meet the RCA' video campaign, which explores the teaching and practices of tutors working in a variety of disciplines.
01
The Brief
NextShoot was asked to produce a short profile film about Dr. Godofredo Pereira, Head of Programme for MA Environmental Architecture & MA City Design, whose work centres on environments, ecologies and collective politics.The overall objective of the video was to give graduates considering an application to the MA Environmental Architecture course an insight into the practice and inspirations of a key member of its teaching staff.
The RCA Communications & Marketing team guided us with subject areas to cover with Godofredo. The brief was to create an informative film that emphasised Godoffredo's approach to tutoring and his views on a programme that sets out to re-configure the way we think, manage, build and protect the planet and its resource concepts of environments, landscapes and ecosystems.
02
Our Approach
We conducted a research call with Godofredo to gather information on his views about his teaching style, his academic background and the structure of the MA Environmental Architecture course, which offers students the opportunity to engage with live projects in locations where there is rapid and complex environmental change.The on-camera interview took place at the RCA Kensington campus with a crew of a Producer/ Director and a DoP and was filmed on our in-house cameras, a pair of Sony FS7 MkIIs.
We took the opportunity to capture shots of the MA students during a tutorial session, making good use of our Dana Dolly set up - a metre of track on a pair of lowboy stands with wheels - and a Sony AS7 MkII mounted on a Ronin gimbal.
In the edit we used the striking materials supplied by Godofredo that relate to the course and its study of climate and environmental change. These materials - based on remote sensing data, film making, model making, and drawing - are the tools that capture important evidence on the state of the environment for forums that might be legal but could equally be artistic, as they were primarily in this case.
03
The Results
This colourful imagery - much of it with a top-down satellite perspective - brings texture to the mix of interview content and broll of the students at work. Editing 60 minutes of interview material into a 4 minute final cut always presents editorial challenges.In the final reckoning we felt we succeeded with an interview assembly which captures the essence of this project-based MA programme that explores the future of landscapes, environments and ecosystems. We were also keen to include more personal sentiments and observations including Godofredo's view on the importance of militancy - 'the constant commitment of pursuing a line of questions around architecture in environmental disputes and environmental change' - and the fact that students, like those on this course, are moving at a much faster pace than any institution in pressing for change. While this is worrying, there is also comfort to be taken from the fact that cohorts of energetic, militant-minded environmental architects will have the tools to challenge and hopefully change the status quo.
