The inimitable Saul Bass — designer of some of the most impressive opening title sequences in movie history — on Making Money Vs. Quality Work. Bass has created title sequences for such films as The Man with the Golden Arm (1955), Vertigo (1958), Anatomy of a Murder (1958), North by Northwest (1959), Psycho (1960), Ocean’s 11 (1960), It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963). He also designed posters for many of the same films, including The Shining in 1980.
Completely beautiful, like a moving postcard. Director/Producer/Editor James W. Griffiths was asked by Tourism Malaysia to make two films, one on the subject of Malaysian history and one on nature. We Were Wanderers is an ode to the flora and fauna of Malaysia. This was filmed on a Canon 1D Mark IV and graded using Color Finesse in After Effects. Looks like some of the slow-motion shots were enhanced with Twixtor, software I can’t wait to try out with a project I’ve got coming up end of the month.
I tried something new last year when I gave you the …By a Fire Mixtape, an alternative—although not entirely disparate—Holiday Mixtape. An hour long, commercial-free Holiday Mixtape where only 1/3 of the tracks are actual Christmas songs. To this day, I’ve considered producing another Mixtape in a similar fashion. I know it’s nice to be able to put some music on and forget about it. I also hate the silence between tracks on regular Holiday albums so we kill two birds with one stone. Now, enjoy …By a Fire: Volume 2.
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! by Dean Martin
I Was Young When I Left Home by Antony & Bryce Dessner
Blue Beard by Band of Horses
Melt Your Heart by Jenny Lewis & The Watson Twins
Santa Baby by Eartha Kitt
Summer Kids Go by The Moonbabies
Winter A-Go-Go by Yo La Tengo
Journey of the Featherless by Cloud Cult
The Christmas Waltz by She & Him
Christmas Ghosts by The Raveonettes
Oh, Magnolia Tree by Ducktails
Love Me Like You Used To by Class Actress
It Takes Time to Be a Man by The Rapture
Blue Christmas by Elvis Presley
A Thing for Me (Breakbot’s B-LIVE Miami Mix) by Metronomy
I recently watched Chaplin on Netflix, and a major culmination of the film reached with this exact, incredible speech taken from 1940′s The Great Dictator. From the comments,
Charlie Chaplin spoke these words 70+ years ago , for someone to be able to take these words and show how that even today they ring true is a testament to their timelessness and brilliance and for a video to do the words justice is brilliant also. well done
And it is still true, even today. Ignore the at times cheesy visuals (Cybermen from Doctor Who, anyone?) and listen to the words and really hear them. The Album Leaf was a cute choice for the music in the background. Still inspirational, Charlie. Thanks.
Not new, but recently came across this video in my Vimeo likes while looking back at the last couple years, the ffficial video of Charlotte Gainsbourgs duo with Beck, Heaven Can Wait. Nice use of whackyness in slow-motion. Video directed by Keith Schofield.
I don’t get bands that use lowercase letters and punctuation in their name. These days you could argue with a name like fun. it would maybe for SEO, but that could be pushing it. Regardless, my friends at the PEAK recently posted this video on their Facebook page of fun. and Janelle Monáe performing an acoustic version of their single ‘We Are Young’ from the band’s upcoming album, Some Nights – available February 21, 2012 on Fueled By Ramen.
A video sneak peek at the new body of work “Shapes & Smiles” by Jolby opening December 16th, 2011 at Subtext Gallery in San Diego, CA.
Somewhere between the shared brains of collaborators Josh Kenyon and Colby Nichols (Jolby) is a land occupied by their beliefs, passions, thoughts, and memories. Returning for their second solo show at Subtext, these seasoned creators will guide us on a voyage through their past, present, and everything in between to find out what makes them happy.
Vimeo’s Featured Videos is often the first place I’ll go when I’m looking for some kind of motion or video inspiration. Earlier in the week I came across this 3 part vignette by director Riley Blakeway of Taj Burrow while in Fiji. The footage is gorgeous, the location equally so, it doesn’t hurt that Riley had access to what I can only assume is a helicopter for some amazing shots.
“All of the surf vision was shot with the EX1.” says Blakeway, which is more than I was expecting from the Sony PMW-EX1. This was sorta the step before the Canon DSLRs came out and started trending, (5Ds and 7Ds mostly). The colour grading is perfect. The intros/outros were on super 8mm.
Happy Friday, I’ve got a very chill Mixcast for you this time. Inspired by my own personal playlist, “Herman Miller,” this playlist contains the loopy and dreamy electronic songs I’ll use when I’m working or designing late night to early morning. Or on rainy days. Or throughout Autumn. Or, since we’re being completely honest, whenever the mood strikes me. Artists featured this Mixcast are:
UR Soul and Mine by Gil Scott-Heron & Jamie XX
You’ll Improve Me by Junior Boys
Cymbal Rush (The Field Late Night Essen Und Trinken Remix) by Thom Yorke
The Aurora Borealis as seen east of Martin, Michigan on October 24 2011. The timelapse spans 2h 20m from just after dusk to around 10:30 pm EDT.
The YouTube video also come with tech details, which is something I like to nerd out about: ~280 15MP images taken with a Canon T1i. Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 set @11mm f4.0 ISO 400. 25 second exposures every 30 seconds.
Taken from Wikipedia: Auroras result from emissions of photons in the Earth’s upper atmosphere, above 80 km (50 mi), from ionized nitrogen atoms regaining an electron, and oxygen and nitrogen atoms returning from an excited state to ground state. They are ionized or excited by the collision of solar wind and magnetospheric particles being funneled down and accelerated along the Earth’s magnetic field lines; excitation energy is lost by the emission of a photon of light, or by collision with another atom or molecule:
oxygen emissions
Green or brownish-red, depending on the amount of energy absorbed.
nitrogen emissions
Blue or red. Blue if the atom regains an electron after it has been ionized. Red if returning to ground state from an excited state.
Happy Friday, Happy September, Happy Birthday to me! Yes it’s true, today is my birthday, 26 if you’re wondering… I’m still kind of salty I didn’t lineup today to be my 26th Mixcast as well, but C’est La Vie. For today’s Faked Potatoes Mixcast, I decided to let fate choose the tunes. The only theme here is these are the first 7 songs that came on my iPod when I clicked shuffle. Artists featured this Mixcast are:
Just got this treasure in my inbox, the new Cut Copy video for “Blink and You’ll Miss a Revolution” was just released… right now! To quote the email:
The video was found in a rusty chest in an ancient grotto in Saint-Maximin, France, and from what archaeologists can ascertain from the hieroglyphic-like scribes inside the chest, it was directed by Emile Sornin, and produced by Jules de Chateleux at Division. Because of its age, it took a lot of time to unlock said chest.
I also see that they’re performing in Vancouver two days after the final PEAK Performance Project Showcase… so maybe I’ll have to stick around…
Oh, hello, I didn’t see you there! Are you ready for some new music? Good! No themes, no frills this time, just music. Artists featured this Mixcast are:
