Kanye West's latest visual hijinks: unapproved video remixes of arthouse favourites as instant quality music videos for Graduation. Wong Kar Wai's 2046, and mainly footage from the BUF produced future city images of the melancholic sci-fier are utilised.
GRADUATION ALBUM LISTENING EXPERIENCE PT.
Vista 8 is the winner of the 1st Ballardian Festival of Home Movies. Other finalists of this sub-one minute in-camera mobile phone video recordings also show a provocative analogue/digital purity.
As someone who's experimented with mobile phone footage for years (the frozen ROAM project - pushing new aesthetics for the mobile screen/locative video) - this is definitely the most affecting and effective use of the medium I've seen.
I thought it might be Hiyao Miyazaki-esque in its ambitious reach for the fantastical, but after all the hype Bjork's latest videoclip, the epic 9-month in the making Wanderlust, washes over you as ineffectually as the river that she travels along within it.
Maybe viewing it in high definition 3D might be a revelation, but Encyclopedia Pictura unfortunately don't reach the heights of either beauty or rawness that are signature elements of the Icelandic artists greatest promo's. There is no denying the artistry in the piece, and I'm sure plenty of fans will buy the Wanderlust DVD on release, but track and visuals never soar together.
A Beginner’s Guide To Giving A Damn… About Climate Change is designed, directed, animated and produced by Airside, and written and co-directed by Al MacCuish.
The primary-coloured animation sports Airside's trademark naif style, and adapts it to a jokey public service announcement. Good to see these Live Earth-commissioned shorts getting some after event exposure.
BUG has taken over the music video showcase slot at the glammed-up BFI Southbank. This event is sold out unless you know somebody who has a spare ticket. Otherwise sign up for updates, and get in on the next one fast.
I haven't seen something so aggressively styled, so successfully combining striking live action with graphic effects for a long time. Las Palmas have hit a glitchy 8-bit groove with this promo clip that combines War Games-style retro 3-D graphics, with fluttering video feedback, a smattering of Jenny Holzer-like aphorisms, and pseudo-religious imagery. Watch out for the subliminals.
Stripped down, like the track: Blue-hued high grunge imagery for Portishead's first video Machine Gun from new album, Third. Whether web-cammed or CCD'ed, this is the antithesis of the To Kill a Dead Man promo epic. It catches the moment - we've moved on from 16mm noir homages to YouTube rehearsal sneak peeks.
A natural extension to Radiohead's current media experiments, and their Radiohead TV concept -- the band have teamed up with Aniboom, the animation/video site, for an In Rainbows animated music video competition.
10 semi-finalists get $1k to create a 1 minute long clip. From 11 voted for semi-finalists (10+wildcard late submission), 5 make the final to win $10k to make the full length version of their submission.
I have a nice stash of chip music in my iTunes folder, and have long been an enthusiast of the 8-bit aesthetic - the crude music and graphics of retro-gaming - so Blip Festival: Reformat the Planet is a documentary recently shown at SXSW 2008 which is simply a must-see. I've already included some of this scene in a screenplay, so this doc has just made it onto my essential research list.
You too can level up at 2 Player Productions.
The British Animation Awards 2008 highlighted some beautiful stuff still coming out of UK animation. Never easy to find the edge in BAA results, but definite highlights for inventiveness are the music video winner, Salmon Dance for The Chemical Brothers, by Dom&Nic -- and a particularly cool result in the Best Film at the Cutting Edge category with Semiconductor's Magnetic Movie (commissioned by the Animate! Arts Council/C4 scheme) leading the pack.
Winning Salmon Dance video and full BAA results after the break.
Archive for Matt..
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