Sunday, November 27, 2011

Address is Approximate

When I first saw the description for Address is Approximate, and the words 'stop-motion' and 'Google Streetview' came up, I thought what a clever idea to use the images from Google Streetview to make some sort of cool film. What I watched was so much more. It reminds me of something Pixar would make. This has something about it that makes it special. An attention to detail that makes the difference. Well just watch it and see.


Address Is Approximate from The Theory on Vimeo.

Saturday, November 26, 2011

I Wish I Had an Evil Twin



Following on from the last post, 'Adventure in Thought' narrated by David Mitchell, after watching the 5th story The Twin Paradox, I was reminded of this song, I Wish I Had an Evil Twin by The Magnetic Fields from the album I.

The basic premise is simple, the title says it all. However, the simple cunningness of what the singer imagines his evil twin would do is amazing. It makes you want one to for all those nefarious acts you wish you could carry out but can't.

'Adventures in Thought'




Take six well known philosophical ideas and explain them each in sixty seconds. Simple. Add in narration by David Mitchell and and some nifty animation and you have yourself 'Adventures in Thought'.

Ormie


Ormie is a Pig, in every sense of the word. Pig see cookie. Pig want cookie. But they are out of reach...or are they? See Ormie's attempts to gain the warm sweet taste that is his obsession.

This is such a simple idea, cutesy looking animal gets all greedy and wants to eat the cookies, but made great but the details. 

Sunday, November 20, 2011

The Ruins of the Mitteldeutsche Motorenwerke in Pönitz

Yesterday we went out to a place called Pönitz to see the ruins of the Mitteldeutsche Motorenwerke. 
(click on the image for a better resolution)






Schadenfreude or Epicaricacy



The word 'Schadenfreude' is one of my favourite German words. It is also one that is seeping back into the English language, seemingly because there is no equivalent English word for deriving pleasure from someone else's misfortune. However there is an English equivalent, or as English as you can get in the English language. The word is Epicaricacy. It seems to either be a new word to the English language or such a rare one that many of the online dictionaries do not contain the word.


Schadenfreude and it's English equivalents
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schadenfreude#English_equivalents
Epicaricacy
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/epicaricacy
and
http://www.myfavoriteword.com/2009/07/24/epicaricacy/

Friday, November 18, 2011

Hecq Vs Exillion - Spheres Of Fury

Voted the best low budget music video at 2010 Music Video Awards, Spheres of Fury comes across like an A-Team remake made by hipsters. This is a homage to all those 80's shows we enjoyed in the 80's like MacGyver and Airwolf. It is tongue in cheek and a lot of fun.


The director Christopher Hewitt has more interesting videos on his website.
http://christopherhewitt.com/

AT-AT day afternoon

This is the sort of video that makes you shout "I want one..."

Being a Star Wars fan I had a lot of the action figures and vehicles and I cannot for the life of me remember if I had an AT-AT? I know I had the Millenium Falcon and one of the baby AT-AT's from Jedi...but the actual AT-AT?


Anyways, enjoy



AT-AT day afternoon from Patrick Boivin on Vimeo.

The Backwater Gospel

The Blackwater Gospel is a dark animation set in a religious god-fearing town of Backwater. The local man of the cloth preaches a fearful sermon about the one member of the town who refuses to be a member of his congregation. The townspeople are scared enough by the priest and the arrival of Death just increases the tension to near breaking. Now all they can do is wait for someone to die.


Is this an indictment about the dangers of religion? Is it a commentary on the social unrest at the present times? You decide for yourself.

The Backwater Gospel from The Animation Workshop on Vimeo.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Rodney Mullen



As a kid I used to skate. I was awful. I enjoyed going up and down the ramps and speeding around the concrete bowls but I never really had the no fear approach that you need to skate. Instead I watched skate videos and this one is probably my favourite. Rodney Mullen is a legend. According to people who know "Mullen is credited with inventing the flatground ollie, the kickflip (originally called the "magic flip") in 1983, the heelflip, the impossible and a long list of other original tricks". Those tricks are the fundamentals of skating...without them it is my type of skateboarding. Anyways, I love this video for three reasons, the first is all the old school tricks he does and the second is the ridiculousness of the tricks and third well....



The Hunger Games




I know nothing about this film or the book that it is supposedly from. The trailer seems interesting enough and generally the film seems as if it has a decent concept. The evil government sets up an barbaric competition in retaliation for some past deeds (sorry if I am oversimplifying it), people are choosen, trained to beat the crap out of people and then set out into the woods to murder each other, you know last man standing and all that.


Although it is not the same exactly, this concept strikes me as being someway between The Running Man and Battle Royale. Both of which were excellent films, in fact the book The Running Man by Richard Bachman aka Stephen King is also great. I wonder if The Hunger Games is going to be a watered down version of these films or if it can live up to the hype that the book has created.


Battle Royale Trailer:



The Running Man Trailer:

Monday, November 14, 2011

Planet Earth from Above




This is quite truly amazing. A view of the earth that very few people get to see. 


All the footage was shot using time lapse sequences of photographs taken with a special low-light 4K-camera by the crew of expedition 28 & 29 onboard the International Space Station from August to October, 2011.

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Seu Jorge - Changes

Having just sat down for the evening to watch "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" Seu Jorge is now stuck in my head doing Portuguese covers of David Bowie. Whilst I love these covers it amazes me how I so easily forget the words to the original English version...