DINFLUX

I had the chance to go to a pre-screening of the upcoming movie The Wrestler, by director Darren Aronofsky. Needless to say I am a huge fan and jumped at the chance to sneak in with the press to catch this movie about 2 months before it is released nationwide. I had an impossible time finding a trailer for this movie before hand, and I arrived to the screening knowing about 4 things: Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei, Darren Aronofsky, and wrestling.

The only thing that disappointed me about the movie was that Aronofsky seemed to have completely switch gears here. The movie is gritty realism, it’s washed out in it’s look and cold like the New Jersey setting it takes place in. All the visual appeal of Aronofsky’s previous movies is completely gone here, the meticulously composed shots and symbolic imagery is replaced with handheld tracking and everyday framing. This disappointed me, but on the other hand it does prove that Aronofsky can Read the rest of this entry »

Title: Balance
Directors: Lauenstein & Lauenstein
Year: 1989

This is one of my favorite short films of all time. It won the 1990 Oscar for animated short, and launched the Lauenstein brother to make a couple of really cool commercials and shorts in the early 90’s using their trademark style, which is reminiscent of Tim Burton’s animation. Nothing more to say about the film, the beauty of it is how simple it is. But you can also dive into it pretty deeply when you start looking at it as a metaphor for political and social systems.

A small bit of trivia, the climactic “balancing platform” sequence from National Treasure: Book of Secrets was directly inspired by this movie. I have not seen that but I’m sure they bastardized the concept.

Song: My Love
Artist: Justin Timberlake (ft. T.I. & Timbaland)
Director: Paul Hunter
Year: 2006

Acclaimed music video director Paul Hunter directed this chart topping Justin Timberlake song, and while normally cookie cutter pop songs produce cookie cutter videos, I think this video has some merit. Either that, or I am a total sucker for black and white with wide screen.

Notably, the video features great dancing, and unlimited use of the wide shot, but it also has class. If that wasn’t obvious from the black and white, then it should be obvious from the white leather couches and outfits. Lastly there is terrific post production, not only is the editing spot on with the timing, but it also features a neat trick that took me totally by surprise Read the rest of this entry »

If you’re a nerd, you will find this really interesting. If you’re not, then you will just watch in amusement and wonder what the hell is going on. It’s a very creative approach to the principles of animation. By spinning the frames of the animation at a constant speed through a turntable, and then using a low FPS on the camera, the frames are seen individually in succession. What makes it really cool is how each frame becomes a movie onto itself as every other frame passes by its location.

I found this great stroll down memory lane, courtesy of New York Mag:

The Most Memorable Advertisements Madison Avenue Ever Sold

It’s a great list of what New York ad executives regard as the most memorable advertisements. Most of them are video, and a handful of print ads are included. The article has links to watch all of them if you want to. If you’re young like me, you probably realize a couple of these are before our time, but even still I recognized about half of them, which is a testament of how good of an ad they were if I remember them so many years later.

For me, the Maxell ad has always been one of my favorite commercials ever. Visit the link and check it out!

House Of Flying Daggers
Year: 2004
Director: Yimou Zhang
IMDB

I am a huge fan of the Wuxia films, and I think Zhang does them best. He is an incredibly talented director, and really excels at beating you over the head with visual themes and composition. In this regard he is probably only surpassed by Hitchcock in my eyes. Apart from his Wuxia films, (Hero, House of Flying Daggers, Curse of the Golden Flower) he has also done 2 other films which are simply incredible, Ju Dou, and Raise the Red Lantern. Go see them today, you won’t be disappointed. Raise the Red Lantern is one of the best movies I have ever seen, and it’s crazy to think that it was only his 4th film.

Now back to the subject at hand… Read the rest of this entry »