Ruffian's directors are Alone, Together

The lockdown situation most of the world now finds itself in is seeing a lot of creative people confined to small spaces, just looking for an outlet.

Thankfully, this can sometimes lead to truly marvellous creations, as the collected films in Ruffian's Alone, Together series go to show.

The brainchild of founder and EP Robert Herman, Alone, Together saw the company's directors challenged to create a 360 film of the world around them, in an attempt to "stay connected and to keep the creative juices bubbling during this time of isolation".

The results are joyously madcap, including Anthony Jorge's adorable ode to childcare, The Bobbsey Twins from Homicide's ominous garden gnome, and Martin Krejci's ambitious view of a couple's descent into debauchery.

We've collected together all of the films here, alongside brief descriptions from the directors on how and what they were trying to achieve through limited resources.

The Outsiders - The Bobbsey Twins from Homicide

This film is a public service announcement about the very real dangers that lurk every time we step outside the house. 

It was executed by strapping a Leica Q to a breadboard and gaffer-taping that to a garden sprinkler. 

The Garden Gnome played himself.

Elementary - Anthony Jorge (Truman & Cooper)

Because my wife is really busy with her work, I’m taking care of my young daughter and son. 

Being stuck in an apartment with two young kids isn’t easy of course. But kids have this magical power of being happy and fun all the time, no matter what virus is killing people outside. This elementary happiness really cheers me up in this dark time and I wanted to convey this feeling. 

I did it as simply as possible, a repetitive 180° movement in the same place, letting place to what we do the best : playing together. 

In between two calls, my wife would jump into the room with her phone to film any stupid things we were doing. It was a lot of fun for all of us. 

The dolphin was my daughter's idea. I’ll definitely involve her next time I pitch on something.

Locked Up - Stephan Wever

Well, firstly, I went against a brief as usual, and I’m not going to pretend that this was a very serious approach. 

But the pandemic is a perfect chance to reflect on certain aspects of my life but especially social behavior that I see around me. I think these are unprecedented times in the sense that we can so easily communicate with everybody around the world, and we have so many options to entertain ourselves that boredom is something that doesn’t have to occur. 

I noticed the same pattern in people on social media posting the same content, whether it was pictures of themselves as a child or tutorials on how to cook and commentary on trending content. I feel everyone needs to express themselves and show their current situation, which I don’t judge or have a real opinion about; it’s just something that I noticed. 

Then you have this global phenomenon like Tiger King or a new season of Ozark released globally. The whole world watches at the same time, and it becomes a way for us to connect and relate, which to me, is very interesting. We share stories at a time of crisis very much the same as our ancestors did in a time of war or famine, but on steroids, it’s global, and it’s so fast and instant, and I find it extremely fascinating as a storyteller. The content becomes a way for us to connect and relate in a time of solitude.

 I feel so much of people's behavior stems from a primal fear we all share, and the media and politicians ignite that fear with large numbers and statistics that are hard to put in perspective. I am not saying the precautions are not necessary; I am trying to make sense of the psychological impact this crisis has on everyone. 

I hope that stories, no matter how banal and absurd like Tiger King, distract us a little bit from our ludicrous reality that we have joy sharing those emotions with people we love or new friends we would like to love. I guess if I would’ve known that people would react to it the way they did, I would’ve had added more little situations reflecting social behavior, but maybe that’s a nice experiment for the future. I will always prefer a message over a technical approach and because simply I didn’t have anybody to help with the mini film I decided to shoot myself and be weird about it all. 

I guess this all sounds pretty pretentious for a very silly video of myself but I’m just being honest about how I feel. 

Stay safe.

Carpe Diem - Martin Krejci

I got the idea of describing five weeks in one shot after reading the news about the prospects of this isolation mayhem... 

Having plenty of time to play with toys, I thought that layering timelapses would be fun to do. 

After nearly two days of trial and error, it wasn’t anymore, especially because doing MoCo type shots without MoCo became much more challenging than I expected. 

I used iPhone, Pivo, editing was a learning process on iMovie and the Piano recorded thru GarageBand. 

Cabin Fever Cubism - Lorcan Finnegan

I wanted to try fragmenting the environment I was working in and look at it from multiple angles at once, in a kind of cubist way. 

I photographed the room (and my head) from multiple angles with my phone, brought them into After Effects and arranged them in a 3D space similar to the environment they taken in, but fractured. 

Then I rotated a camera within this space, on a circular tracking path while panning 360 for some disorientating shifts in parallax.

Grand - Scott Carthy

The idea sprang from the endless spirals I found myself slipping into around my room and in my head during the first week of lockdown, trying to figure out where to place my attention and thoughts next when I could grasp them. 

It was an eternally short week punctuated by calls from home seeing how I was getting on which became all the more frequent with even less to be said each time on my part, leaving plenty of space to bounce off the walls. 

I wanted the video to give a sense of that slight confusion and irritability that followed those first few days and first week of lockdown, and the silliness of how 'difficult' I and we at times found it.

Fratenize - Jonathan Berry Cohen (Truman & Cooper)

You can't tar all corona viruses with the same brush. 

It's all about finding a common language and getting to know each other. 

I started with The Beatles and magic simply happened.

Monument - Neil Huxley

Simplicity in the camera move and execution. 

I wanted to let my surroundings speak for themselves. Concrete pillars, vintage film posters, antique furniture, monster maquettes, cracked mirrors rescued from a warehouse fire and a dining table laden with skulls. 

I’ve created an environment that is a constant source of inspiration. A monument to art and the creative process.

Meshuga - Evan Silver

A 360-degree, head-spinning timelapse seemed like a fitting visual approach to tell a day-in-the-life story under quarantine. 

Dodging my neighbors masked-faces, opening mail with latex gloves, or throwing my three-year-old a virtual birthday party, I'm craving some semblance of normalcy. 

And since normality apparently doesn't exist during a pandemic, Monty Python's Always Look on the Bright Side of Life was the perfect soundtrack, and reminder, that a sense of humor is even more valuable right now.

Reboot - Zak Emerson

Based on no solid medical advice other than a hunch, we took our kids out of school a week and a bit before they all closed here in UK, so the Ruffian 360 brief came in during our dreaded 'week three’ at home. 

In an attempt not to kill each other I did what any forty-something chap would do, and ordered a shed to build with my two young boys. 

Clearing the garden and building together, over a couple of days the simplicity of the space quickly represented a safe haven in this bamboozling time.

Confession - Leila de Blinkk (Leila & Damien)

My 360 film is about the way we are constantly internalising information and news about Coronavirus, between our four walls, and making narratives we hear, ours. 

Is it out of empathy or panic? I am not sure.

From the general public, to public figures and politicians sharing their story on infection out of the intimate context of their homes, comes a common stream of "it could be me", or "maybe it's me". Boris Johnson's initial announcement shifted abruptly the format of communication from the familiar formal press conference to the almost-confession-like amateur home video.

This blurring of lines is one of many aspects of the deep shifts we are experiencing during this outbreak.  

The film was shot at the early stage of the infection of Boris Johnson when he described his symptoms as mild. The "but" at the end of the film is an eerie un-intentional sign on the un-predictability of this virus.

Searching - Damien de Blinkk (Leila & Damien)

The film is a sort of dance with sombreness, where the camera’s eye seeks with apprehension, finding its way in a sort of labyrinth of forms and sun rays. 

A simple piece, where the camera has a light and fluid step.  

A sort of breathe of the life in my studio; away from noise and cacophony ....