In the first time in a long time, I headed out and saw a flick ‘solo’… And it was great! There’s a million reviews out there already, so I won’t give some long winded tale about this movie… But let’s just say, it’s refreshing to watch an edgy comedy that pulls no punches. Raunchy good times non stop…

I will say nearly the entire cast was awesome. But Jennifer Aniston and Charlie Day steal the movie. It has to go without saying that Aniston is pretty stunning in the movie, but not just visually. With a mouth like a sailor, every scene of hers is drop dead funny. Charlie Day pulls off oddball goofs like no other and its great to finally see him get a starring role in a film… Rush out and catch this movie (unless of course you’re offended by just about anything…then steer clear and go see that horrible looking new Kevin James talking animals movie…).

On that note… Red Band Trailer (NSFW).

www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpjupmLhzwc

                          

I am absolutely sucked in to all the fantastic work going on these days with DSLR photography and video and having recently purchased one of my own, am certainly looking forward to getting more and more creative with my own shooting. Philip Bloom is a London based Director and Filmmaker who has a TON of fantastic stuff online, much of it done in a learning/experimenting capacity. His tips are invaluable and there’s days of material to absorb.

His latest piece on Vimeo explores working with HDR Timelapse photography and the results are fascinating.. Everyone knows what timelapse is, but in case you don’t understand HDR photography, it’s essentially High Dynamic Range photography; (via wikipedia:”a set of techniques that allow a greater dynamic range of luminance between the lightest and darkest areas of an image than current standard digital imaging techniques or photographic methods.”).

The video itself is pretty stunning (I especially like all the stuff that starts around the 1:40 mark), and it’s helped by one of my favorite soundtrack pieces – ‘Moon’ by Clint Mansell… Even better, Philip has put a detailed 30 minute “commentary” track on his site about the technical stuff surrounding this undertaking, and this further enhances the piece. The shots of Vegas architecture and energy are well worth your time…

                          

Scott Pilgrim vs the World opening title sequence | The Art of the Title Sequence.

A nice little follow-up to my post of my favorite movie of 2010, here’s another fantastic piece over on “The Art of the Title Sequence” about the whole process that went into the making of the opening scene and titles for ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. The World”… As with all their posts, absolutely amazing depth into the process with numerous examples of tests and the thought process going into the scene’s creation.

                          

www.youtube.com/watch?v=btINjsEBKqs

This movie has just about everything you can ask for in a movie. Great story, fantastic soundtrack, a cohesive cast, crazy action, hilarity… the list goes on. But above all, the motion graphics and cinematography absolutely blew me away (and I was watching on a crappy old-school 32 inch tube TV…).

I won’t go into the history and backstory of the whole Scott Pilgrim thing aside from mentioning it’s origins as a comic book… With that said, it’s this comic background that is the driving force behind all the subtle and overt uses of crazy motion graphics and special effects… The movie is filled with it, but because of the way its shot and the way the story flows, it’s stunningly not distracting at all.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gkETBPx49I

Did I mention the movie has a “Bass Battle”?  How can you go wrong with that? Actually, this little clip along with the trailer (below) is a great example of the integration of the motion graphics and the style with which this movie is put together and paced…

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NUBVcit5VM

The editing is fantastic. The cuts and transitions (of which the variety was insane) also really helped to fill in and push the energy and flow the story needed. This is a movie I’ll be rewatching for sure, and at some point I’d love to break it down and really take a deeper look at scenes/cuts/colors/effects/etc. I know I’m rambling a bunch of complimentary adjectives together, but fresh off watching it, there’s not much more I can say besides grab the DVD or hit it up On Demand at your earliest convenience….

                          

Wow, what a fantastic site. Stumbled onto this while surfing for ideas for a title sequence to a little piece I’m working on at work. Incredibly deep, this site takes stunning title sequences from Movies and TV and dives into the process of their creation; be it through an interview with the creator or production company, audio or video snippets of the process, and in some cases detailed breakdowns of each step in the life of the project (see the Dexter sequence breakdown). Quite a site to get lost in and the depth of information and visuals is superb. Bookmark this, favorite it or “like” it NOW…

                          

www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qmun-FNO_s

www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2s5vS-ONSQ

                          

Welcome to Open Source Cinema | Open Source Cinema – An Open Source Documentary Film about Copyright.

So I just finished watching the absolutely brilliant and fascinating documentary RIP: A Remix Manifesto… Starting off with Girl Talk and cycling through the 20th Century of American pop culture in regards to copyright, free use and mashup culture, this documentary is fantastic. There’s some great arguments about how copyright changes in the US have affected art and culture growth, and how the internet and technology have played a part in not only changing that, but facilitating a boom in creativity unmatched in our lifetime…

This Open Source Cinema site is one remarkable example (created by the filmmaker) to further the points made in the doc. Here, people are encouraged to upload their own open source video for use by others, and to remix the materials already here, including the footage from the documentary to make it an ever growing and changing thing…

There’s also some fascinating bits in the doc on how Brazil as a country has revolutionized “remix” ideals not only in art and culture but in medicine and science… There’s a ton of stuff about the effects of the RIAA in the past decade or so and the stifling and misguided nature of their efforts of control…

Cooler still, you can watch the entire thing (as well as remix it yourself) on the open source cinema site… Check it out!