Chel White’s “natural habitat”
On anyone’s first day on the job at Bent Image Lab, there’s this inevitable neck snap of a double take that happens as they are shown around and walk by Chel White’s office for the first time. Sometimes there’s a sound that accompanies this action – but this is no kung-fu soundtrack… this is the much more low key true-to-life sound you hear when you see something unexpectedly awe inspiring. Sometimes the whoosh has a “wha?” attached. Sometimes it’s more of a “gah.” Other times it’s merely the sound of the lower lip separating from the upper as the jaw drops wide open.
Welcome to Chel White’s forest – an office honed to Pacific Northwest perfection over many years spent directing and supervising independent features, commercials, music videos and other creative endeavors at Bent.
I like a good challenge as much as the next guy, but I’ll admit trying to put what Chel has created here into words will be a tall order. Let’s try this – it’s a bit voyeuristic but here’s a panorama I snapped and stitched that puts you in the center of the room. Click & drag below, have a look around!
[pano file=”/panoramas/QTVR_chelwhite.mov”]
Can you feel it? It’s a kind of calming effect. That same feeling you get when you’re fully enclosed in Forest Park and see the buildings of the city melt away as you ascend up into the redwoods, sequoias and pines. It took me a while to catch myself doing it, but each time I walk into Chel’s office I almost subconsciously take a deep breath as if there was fresh forest air waiting for me inside. Yes, I’m being completely serious – this scene he’s created… it gets me every time.
I guess it’s no different from a breath you might take when you’re about to tee off at the first hole of the frisbee golf course at Pier Park amongst the trees, or when you take that first step onto, say, one of the more manicured college campuses around here – maybe Reed College down in Woodstock, NoPo’s U of Portland, or Pacific out in Forest Grove. Or maybe you’re hiking up that trail to the top of Multnomah Falls. Depending on how long you’ve lived here, you may not quite have put your finger on it yet, but you most definitely know it; it’s that impossible to define “forest feeling.” For some of us it’s half the reason we live in the NW in the first place.
But let’s not kid ourselves, this is an office space that lies within the heart of Bent Image Lab. There’s work to be done — a mountain of it!
And make no mistake – lots of intense, amazing work does flow through this office in particular. But thankfully (for our sake), the calming effect makes it a much-needed eye of the hurricane. You step out of Chel’s door and it’s chaos at 24 frames per second (ok, sometimes 30). But step inside and close the door, and you might be safe if not just for a moment.
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