Scent in Film: The Memory Maker

The Memory Maker from Alexander Whitehill on Vimeo.

Alex Whitehill has never met a perfumer, but he's no stranger to the effects of fine fragrance and the power of the sense of smell. His film, The Memory Maker, is a charming animated short that visually articulates what it's like to be taken back in time when one encounters a scent associated with a loved one.

None of the characters in The Memory Maker speak, but their interactions with each other in a variety of settings are universally understood. The Memory Maker encapsulates the truth of smell's powerful connection to memory, but most of all, it is a testament to the power of imagination.

There is much in Whitehill's character of the 'Memory Maker' that reflects the playful nature of perfumers; something not often seen in the media. The character of Joyce, portrayed in two distinct life phases, makes one question established notions of time and what it means to grow old. Glass Petal Smoke caught up with Whitehill to find out what inspired him to make such a delightful film.

1. How long have you been making films? Is this what you do as a creative endeavor or do you do this for a living?

This was my first animated short film that I produced in 2011 during my final year of University at Goldsmiths College, where I studied media and communications. I’ve not made anything since, but do have a couple of ideas in mind that I would love to bring to life. Currently I work planning advertising at a media agency in London.

2. Your film is "Inspired by the mysterious world of olfaction and its fascinating ability to evoke the strongest of memories..." Have you experienced this personally?

One of my favorite smells is of freshly grated lemon zest, which always transports me back to being a child helping my mother make lemon meringue pie for dessert on Sundays. I have always had a strong sense of smell and love reminiscing when I smell certain things by closing my eyes and being taken back to specific periods in my life.

3. "...The Memory Maker depicts a fictional world where this magic can be captured and treasured for later use." This description resonates with perfume lovers and those who are aware of the connection between scent and memory.  Are there colognes that you enjoy which resonate with this statement?  Any moments in your life that you would like to bottle for later use?

I noticed the transporting power of fragrance when I was about sixteen and found a new fragrance, Armani Attitude, that took me right back to a friend’s house I used to visit when I was a child. I could almost hear the music that was playing in the background then.

I buy some fragrances because I associate the smell with a fond memory. Other times I buy new cologne for times in my life that I want to remember, such as holidays abroad, maybe Christmas with the family, or simply times when I feel my life is going well and I’m happy, in the hope that sometime in the future when I smell them again, I will be transported back to that time and feeling.

I once spent an extortionate amount of money on a bottle of Agrumi Amari diSicilia by Bois 1920 before I spent a summer interning in New York. When I smell it now, I am whisked back to hot summer nights in the city, and traveling on the subway, the feeling of confidence and excitement. Ironically, halfway through my three months I was feeling homesick, so I bought a bottle of Dior Homme, my signature fragrance that I had left in England.

4. The way the film transitions from the Joyce's childhood memory to Joyce sitting as an old woman is poignant and quite effective. What led you to editing the film in this manner?

Using a close up of Joyce’s face and zooming out, I wanted it to be a moment of gradual realization for the audience that this was the young girl who they had seen smelling the ‘memory’ in the shop. You may have noticed, before we enter the memory the little girl inhales and closes her eyes, and as we leave, Joyce exhales, open her eyes, and pulls the bottle down to her lap. This was to tie both parts together and inform the audience that the old lady is the young girl.

5. The character of the Memory Maker plays a piano that is a catalyst for combining ingredients that are visual and colorful. How did this evolve as you were making the film?

I was having a hard time trying to think of how to visually portray the making of a memory. I had formulated the idea of a machine that would turn the ingredients into a memory, but I needed to make sure the audience could really feel the process. I added the glass ball as a way of showing the mixing of all the colors of the jars. At this point of the process, I had already asked my then boyfriend to help compose the soundtrack on the piano. I realized how beautiful it would look if playing the piano powered the machine. It added the element of creativity and skill I needed the Memory Maker to have, instead of just pushing a button on a machine, and provided an extra audible signifier for the audience.

6. There is no dialogue in the film which makes all the other senses invoked more powerful. Do you think your film would have been different if the characters spoke versus gestured?

Absolutely. I’ve always found that the power in films with no dialogue lies in the subtlety of character expression and movement. In the scene where the girl is on the train, I spent a long time deliberating over how to portray the feeling of love the girl felt for her father. I have faded memories of only being tall enough to hug my parent’s legs and I think the image of this awakes a feeling we all have of nostalgia for our childhoods. I don’t think I could have captured the magic in this moment using dialogue alone.

7. Have you ever met a perfumer? If not would you like to meet one that worked on a fragrance you like?

I have never met a perfumer, but I would really love to. For a number of years, I considered a career in the field myself (I think after reading Patrick Süskind's Perfume). I would like to meet the makers of some of the classics. From the modern day, I would like to meet the perfumer behind Comme des Garçons 2 and Comme des Garçons MAN. I think they are both so unusual and exciting.

8. Is the character Joyce the same Joyce mentioned in the film credits? If so, can you share her memory of riding on the engine with her father?

The main character Joyce is my Nanna, who throughout my childhood would always recount her memory of riding on the footplate of engines with her father who was a train driver for GWR (Great Western Railways). One day, in her all white Sunday best, instead of going to Sunday school she spent the morning with her father on the trains, arriving home covered in oil and dirt from the engine to a very unimpressed mother. Whenever she tells me this story, her face always lights up. I decided this would be the perfect memory to use in the animation as it had a certain timelessness. In fact, the train in the animation is one my Nanna used to ride with her father, the King George V 6000. I decided to painstakingly recreate the train using photographs and YouTube videos and even some blueprints I found, in order to add another dimension to the film.

9. In real life, where is the train traveling and what regions does it go through?

I didn’t decide on a place where the train was traveling to. However, my Nanna grew up in Leamington Spa, a town in Warwickshire, England, so I suppose it is somewhere around there.

10. Did you learn much about olfaction when you were in school? Do you think it deserves more of a role in curriculum across ages?

I don’t remember being taught anything about olfaction, but it would certainly have been something I'd have been interested in learning about. After all, it is the one sense we know the least about.

11. What are the challenges of illustrating things that can't be seen in the medium of film, like the sense of smell?

The only challenge is to make sure the audience can understand what you are trying to say, the key to which is how the character moves and reacts, their facial expressions, the things we tend to read subconsciously. I made the girl close her eyes when she inhaled, something we all do if we smell something that has a fond memory attached to it. I think this permits our mind's eye to see the memory more clearly. Additionally, I used a range of techniques to evoke the notion of scent; I used a color that I imagined to have a certain scent, a shape of bottle that suggested perfume, and finally the swirling movement to suggest that a scent was released when Joyce squeezed the atomizer.

12. If you could make another film with an olfactory theme, with the benefit of consulting a perfumer for the creative process, what would you like to do?

I would like to understand what goes on in the mind of a perfumer when they smell and mix certain scents together. I imagine there to be some kind of visual effect in their mind's eye, if not a color, then a place, a feeling or emotion.

If this was the case, I imagine creating an animation that follows a perfumer through the creative process. With the first scent we are transported to a brief flashing visual of something, maybe a color, a place, or a face. Like a painter, they gather lots of fragrances together, each with its own feeling or color, to create some kind of scene or landscape that builds together like the pieces of a jigsaw. 

Perhaps we also see them get it wrong a couple of times. We see the visual distorted, perhaps it doesn't make sense. For example, what originally builds to be someone sitting by a beautiful Swiss lake on a hot summer’s day, when the perfumer adds something that doesn’t fit, perhaps there are no leaves on the trees and the lake is frozen. Eventually as they keep mixing and sampling new ingredients, they reach the finished masterpiece which we see in full.

Notes:
Mark Buxton is the perfumer who created Comme des Garçons 2 and Comme des Garçons MAN. Like other talented perfumers who felt constrained by commercial perfumery he decided to go into business for himself. You can visit his website at  Mark Buxton.com. 

 

 

Scent in Film: The Perfume Man from Taksim

The Perfume Man from Taksim from Calvin Walker on Vimeo.

Film is a challenging medium if one seeks to capture the mystique of perfume. You can't see what is being smelled because scent is invisible. What you can see is how scent affects people and when the right filmmaker is behind the camera those emotions are free of stereotype and hack monologue (the later evidenced by last year's ad for Chanel No. 5 with Brad Pitt which the The Telegraph's Clive James described as Brad Pitt "...speaking through his armpit.").

Filmmaker Calvin Walker posted "The Perfume Man from Taksim" in early January. Walker, who works for the French National Film Commission, is self taught and migrated from photography to film as his preferred medium of expression. He was at the Istanbul International Short Film Festival in November 2012, promoting his short film "Blanche", when he decided to explore Taksim Square. That is where he found the subject of his film, "The Perfume Man from Taksim" which is shot in black and white.

"One afternoon, while exploring the area with my friend, I came across this gentleman in the street and was intrigued by his old wooden box of bottles. He seemed very friendly, so I sat with him for a little while. We could only communicate with smiling, nodding and pointing, since neither of us spoke the other's language. We bought some perfume he made for us while we were filming." says Walker.

There is no dialogue in "The Perfume Man from Taksim," only the sound of Peggy Lee's plaintive voice singing the Rogers and Hart classic "Where or When". The song's theme of déjà vu is an ode to memory that perfectly illustrates what happens on camera and in the mind of someone who smells perfume. Watching the perfumer compounding a scent using a hypodermic needle and fragrance materials from a chic, but unusual portable display case invites curiosity and defies description. The viewer can't help wondering what the perfume smells like, though how it is used and the fact that it smells good can be intimated from the perfumer's gestures.

The identity of the perfumer was and still is unknown. "I recently send some emails to some places near where I filmed him, in the hope that someone might be able to put me in touch with him if he is a well-known local character." says Walker. "So far, I've had no news. I'll keep trying to find out who he is, but I am beginning to get the feeling I may never know, in which case he'll remain the mysterious perfume vendor."

How did the perfume compounded by the mysterious perfumer smell? "It was mainly flowery and fruity. Perhaps a little strong for Europeans, but probably more adapted to Turkish or Arabic tastes," says Walker, who admits that scent probably plays a bigger role than he's conscious of when it comes to filmmaking. "I tend to search for ways of conveying atmospherics, but I never think of smells."

Walker does have a few favorites when it comes to scent, "I have a few favorite food smells such as the Julie mango (a special variety of mango that is very different from all the others). Apparently when I was a very young child in Jamaica, I was a mango fiend and used to eat my weight in mangoes! I’m also very fond of freshly ground ginger and carrot juice. It’s probably a case of both smell and taste. I have no particular favorite perfume, although lavender is very evocative for me. It reminds of lavender water my mother used both as a scent and a headache remedy when I was a child." 

Notes:
You can see other short films by Calvin Walker on Vimeo. Glass Petal Smoke likes "Fusion Froide". You learn more about Calvin Walker on his webpage. 

The Julie mango is less fibrous than most mangoes and has a distinctive pineapple note. It is known for its juicy and delicious flavor. 

If you want to understand Turkish culture and history Glass Petal Smoke recommends reading the books of Orhan Pamuk. Pamuk won The Nobel Prize in Literature in 2006.

Inside the Olfactory Mind of Temple Grandin

Dr. Temple Grandin is a visual thinker empowered by autism. It's why she's been able to devise solutions for the humane treatment of farm animals while evangelizing an important neuroscientific truth; there are many styles of thinking, all of which deserve consideration. Grandin's insight is particularly evident when she describes the sensory mind of a dog:

 “…An animal is a sensory-based thinker, not verbal -- thinks in pictures, thinks in sounds, thinks in smells. Think about how much information there is there on the local fire hydrant. He knows who's been there, when they were there. Are they friend or foe? Is there anybody he can go mate with? There's a ton of information on that fire hydrant. It's all very detailed information…” TempleGrandin, TED, 2010

So how does a visual thinker like Grandin "see" her sense of smell? Her answers to the Glass Petal Smoke "Sensory Questionnaire" make it very clear.

1.  What does your sense of smell mean to you?
I love my favorite food smells. Since vision is my dominant sense, I see a picture of the food in my mind before I smell it.

2.  What are some of your strongest scent memories?
I remember the pleasant Sunday smells from the fireplace in my grandfather’s living room. 

3.  What are some of your favorite smells (things in nature, cooking &/or your environment)?
New mown hay. Steak on the grill.

4.  Do you have any favorite smells that are considered strange?
New plastic.

5.  Describe one or more of your favorite cooking smells.
Baking cookies.

6.  What smells do you most dislike?
Vomit.

7.  What smell did you first dislike, but learned to love?
Aged cheese.

8.  What mundane smells inspire you?
None. Vision is my dominant sense.

9. What scent never fails to take you back in time and why?
Cooking marshmallows on a campfire.

10.  What scents do you associate with memories of loved ones?
Grilled cheese sandwiches; in elementary school they were my favorite lunch.

11.  What fragrance(s) remind you of growing up?
Aunt Bella’s perfume.

12.  What fragrance(s) remind you of the places you visited on vacation?
Ocean smell. Reminds me of looking for shells at the beach when I was a child.

13.  Describe a piece of sensory literature that is very magical for you.
[Left blank]

Notes:
"Inside the Olfactory Mind" is a series on Glass Petal Smoke designed to make the sense of smell more tangible; to gourmands, perfume lovers and the curious. Smells may be invisible, but the images we associate with aroma immediately come to mind via memory. Feelings follow, and if we are not hindered by negative associations or fear of self expression, we can access words to describe what we sense. This process is specific to olfaction because the sense of smell is primarily a protective sense that becomes pleasurable when danger is not attached to what we are smelling (smoke, fire, rotten food, smell of death, etc.).

Inner vision as it relates to memory is an important part of olfactory perception, but it is often overshadowed by emotion. Vision without the prejudice of personal/social likes and dislikes allows one to sense an object outside preconceived notions. The first step in evaluating an aroma is getting yourself out of the way. "Neuronormals" (those not on the autistic spectrum) who relate strongly to olfaction can learn a lot from Temple Grandin when it comes to valuing their sense of smell and using it assess stimuli objectively; for problem solving or pleasure.

Image Credits:
Image of Dr. Temple Grandin from Colorado State University.

Image of "Steaks on a Grill" from PD Photo. Licensed under Creative Commons.

Photo of "Fireplace" by Ryan Mahle via Creative Commons. 

Image of "Making Hay"  by Bob Trevaskas. Licensed under Creative Commons.

Image of cookies on a cooling rack by Michelle Krell Kydd. All rights reserved.

Image of "Volatile Vinyl from the Center for Health Justice' article on the smell of new plastic.

Image of the Stinky Cheese man from The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales by Jon Sciezcka and Lane Smith. Great book (and Caldecott Honor award winner).

If you like the eye chart image in this post you can make one by clicking here.

Image of a young girl toasting marshmallows at a campfire by photographer Jill Reger. Rights reserved by the photographer.

Image of Jo Stafford in her dressing room by Bill Gottlieb. Note all the classic perfume bottles. Part of a collection of images from The Library of Congress.

Image of beach in Wellfleet by Michelle Krell Kydd. All rights reserved.

Frankincense Shortbread Cookies

Frankincense flavor is no stranger to pastry. Thailand is famous for Kanom Kleeb Lumdual, an ornate shortbread cookie flavored with a variety of aromatics traditionally associated with incense (including frankincense). The pastry is perfumed with fragrant smoke produced by a u-shaped culinary candle called a Tian Op. It's a poetic process, but it isn't the best way to add flavor if you want to taste what's perfuming the smoke. Incorporating a touch of food grade essential oil of frankincense will add a palatable nuance that is nothing short of divine.

Frankincense, like mastic, possesses minty, evergreen, and citrus notes; aspects are sublimated when frankincense is burned as incense. These fleeting qualities blossom in shortbread cookie formulas and are subtly detected in the finish. There is an art to dosing essential oils to create this effect, one that is counter intuitive. Less is more as there is a fine line between eliciting "this is so delicious" and "what the heck did you put in my food" when using food grade essential oils.

 If you've added the right amount of frankincense the effect will be delicately transcendent. Glass Petal Smoke's recipe for Frankincense Shortbread Cookies does not include vanilla and that is intentional. The only flavoring agents are food grade essential oil of frankincense and a Jordanian liquor flavored with mastic, anise and herbs.

Frankincense Shortbread Cookies

Recipe by Michelle Krell Kydd

Yield: 70 cookies

Ingredients:

2 ¼ cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
1 cup powdered sugar

¼ tsp sea salt
1 cup unsalted butter (two sticks, room temperature)
2 tbsp plus 1 tsp Arak Haddad Mastic (a Middle Eastern liquor)

1-2 drops Aftelier Organic Frankincense Chef's Essence (a food grade essential oil)

Directions:

·      Divide the oven rack into thirds and preheat to 325 degrees.

·      Prep two cookie trays by lining them with parchment paper. Set aside.

·      Sift flour, powdered sugar and salt into a large mixing bowl.

·      Soften butter in a small glass bowl in the microwave so it is creamy in consistency (not warm or transparent). Use a fork to smooth it out.

·      Add Arak Haddad Mastic and food grade essential oil of frankincense to the butter and mix thoroughly. If you would like to use more frankincense do it one drop at a time, tasting the butter with each additional drop. The essence should be slightly noticeable; not intense or overbearing.

·      Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and incorporate with a spatula. Once everything is roughly combined use your hands to mix the dough. Work the dough gently. When coarse crumbs begin to form work the dough thoroughly with your hands. Form a large bowl of dough when you are finished.

·      Roll teaspoon sized balls of dough by hand and place them on a cookie sheet in rows of five (there will be seven rows per sheet). Gently press each cookie with the end of a drinking glass so the oval formed by hand rolling at the center of the cookie is flat. Each ball of dough should be no bigger than one inch on the cookie sheet.

·      The baking time for these cookies is 20-25 minutes and includes turning the trays from top to bottom every 6 minutes as this shortbread formulas isn’t leavened and doesn’t include eggs. The cookies will be faintly tan around the edges when they are ready, and you will smell the butter just before it starts to brown.

·      Remove cookie trays from the oven and allow the cookies to cool down before placing them on wire racks to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.

Notes:

The dough used to make this shortbread can be flavored many ways and is especially suitable for baking with food grade essential oils as the fat content is high (great for even distribution of flavor, acts as a carrier) and the oven temperature is under 350 degrees (discourages evaporation of highly volatile molecules in essential oils that are responsible for flavor).

Aftelier's Frankincense Chef's Essence costs $12 for 5ml; a great price and just the right amount for a few rounds of baking.

Food grade essential oils that are "generally recognized as safe" by the FDA (section 582.20 of the FDA code) are not the essential oils sold in health food stores intended to be worn as perfume. If you are going to use food grade essential oils check the FDA GRAS list regularly and buy essential oils that are designated for baking and cooking. These materials are typically diluted between 1-3 % to make alcohol-based flavor extracts in the flavor industry, which is why one to three drops of food grade essential oil in a recipe will suffice.

FDA CFR Title 21, Part 172, Section 172.510: Food Additives Permitted for Direct Addition to Food for Human Consumption shows the genus and species of an ingredient which can be consumed and includes a limitations column for prohibitions based on particular constituents. Frankincense is also known as olibanum and can be found in this section of the FDA code with this nomenclature.

*Arak is an anise-based digestif common in the Middle East. Arak Haddad Mastic (distributed by Eagle Distillery) is made in Jordan and has a well rounded flavor as the anise is supported by mastic and herbs. If you cannot find this type of arak at your local liquor store a regular one will do, but you might want to use 2 tablespoons only and/or play with the balance of frankincense to tone the anisic quality that defines arak. If you like digestifs you can purchase Skinos MastihaSpirit (mastic liquor) and add a teaspoon of it to any basic arak and voila; you can duplicate the results had you been able to find a bottle of Arak Haddad Mastic. You can also tincture mastic resin in 190 proof alcohol and use a few drops of the mother tincture (at least 30 days old) in this recipe.