I'm a fellow at Digital Transformations!

Robert Waddilove May 6, 2012

I think this must have been added quite recently, as I hadn't seen it before. But my details have been added to the list of fellows at Digital Transformations!

I'm very proud to have been invited to take part in this fascinating project, and looking forward to more of the events and stimulating discussions.

I think this quote says it best about the project:

A generation ago, cultural and media organisations – such as the BBC or the National Gallery – had a reasonably straightforward relationship with their audiences. They created material – such as TV programmes, publications and exhibitions – in a ‘broadcaster’ mode, and it was consumed (or not) by the public.

But today, these organisations are merely one part of a creative ecosystem, within which communities of amateur enthusiasts may be the producers of the most innovative material.

This project studies those changing relationships, and explores ways in which cultural organisations can work with creative communities to make great things.

Blade Runner Ephemera

Robert Waddilove April 29, 2012

On Reddit this morning I saw this very pretty cinemagraph.

A comment on Reddit really caught my eye, which referred to the spinning ceiling fan as having the 'Ballerina Effect'. Upon clicking the link, I saw this GIF (loving the renaissance of GIF's!).

If you stare at the female humanoid shape in the middle, you will perceive 'her' moving in one direction, clockwise or counter-clockwise. If you then look at the image to the right or left of 'her', which is moving in the opposite direction - it seems to shift the perception of direction 'she' is moving in. Totally weird!

I've never heard of the 'Ballerina Effect' before, but find it quite extraordinary that your brain can perceive that kind of movement in two completely different ways.

To continue the Blade Runner theme this weekend, there was a gorgeous video of London uploaded to Vimeo containing amazing aerial views of London. The first part of the video, with the night shots, just look incredible and very 'Blade Runner' indeed. Interesting to see aswell how London is becoming much 'taller' and built up as a city in recent years. One of my first short films, 'Practice Makes Perfect' includes a time-lapse of London, without any Ghurkin or Shard - it looks quite naked!

Pound for pound does Cop Land (1997) have the best cast in a film?

Robert Waddilove February 11, 2012

I recently re-watched Cop Land (James Mangold, US, 1997). It's the by-product of new technology in the home entertainment market, in this case Blu-ray. You get to rewatch all your favourite films and see it in all it's HD glory and you get to spot those extras in the background you never could before, or see how obvious the make up was. I'm completely sold on it all though, I love good quality and pour over the reviews of new Blu-ray's to see if the film transfer has been cleaned from a new scan, or if it's just a dodgy transfer from when they made the DVD. For this reason, I cannot touch the Heat (Michael Mann, US, 1995) Blu-ray - it's meant to not be up to standard of other Blu-ray's and almost based on the same DVD version - so there's no point to it. Some Blu-ray's are just stunning, obviously new films shot on digital media or which are animated get the 'Glass Grade' from me - your Pixar's, your Avatar's, your Dark Knight's. But some old films look tremendous too, Star Wars, Back to the Future, Once upon a Time in the West - all have had the tender loving care they deserve, and it keep them up to date with new releases (and also allows the Studios to keep making money from them).

Anyway, this is a whole other post, back to Cop Land.

Cop Land is not the best film in the world, it's quite a small scale story but is nicely paced and well acted. You really root for Stallone too, something we're used to. It's interesting as someone who has visited New York & New Jersey - how each city perceives the other. There's a lot of that in The Sopranos too.

Its most stand out feature is the cast though, most of which seemed to work their way into The Sopranos. The producers managed to a get a stellar cast attached to it, from the A-List to character actors. It prompted me to announce this fact on twitter, which made me want to break down the cast in a blog post.

Just putting this out there:Pound for pound 'Copland' has the best cast in a film.This is your opener, blog to follow twitter.com/waddilover/sta…
— Robert Waddilove (@waddilover) February 9, 2012

So the main cast, which every sod knows:

Sylvester Stallone - Freddy Heflin Harvey Keitel - Ray Donlan Ray Liotta - Gary Figgis Robert De Niro - Moe Tilden

That's a hell of an opener, but it's the supporting cast where it gets crazy good. I'll add a random other film/tv show where you may recognise them from.

Peter Berg - Joey Randone The Last Seduction

Janeane Garofalo - Deputy Cindy Betts The Larry Sanders Show, The Sopranos

Robert Patrick - Jack Rucker Terminator II, Sopranos (Also one of the most under-rated actors - always different!)

Michael Rapaport - Murray Babitch Phoebe's boyfriend in Friends

Annabella Sciorra - Liz Randone Mainly Tony's mental goomah in Soproanos

Noah Emmerich - Deputy Bill Geisler The Truman Show

Cathy Moriarty - Rose Donlan Raging Bull (Yes, De Niro's 16 year old bride)

John Spencer - Leo Crasky Everybody's favourite Chief of Staff, Leo McGarry in The West Wing

Frank Vincent - PDA President Lassaro Do I have to say? Ok - Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Casino, The Sopranos

Arthur J. Nascarella - Frank Lagonda The Sopranos

Edie Falco - Berta The Sopranos

John Doman - Lassaro's Aide The Wire

Deborah Harry - Delores Yes, that Debbie Harry - barely seen serving beers!

Frank Pellegrino - Mayor The great FBI chief in The Sopranos

John Ventimiglia - Officer V Artie from The Sopranos - Just in the background a couple of times!

Method Man - Shondel Yes, the rapper

Bruce Altman - Counselor Burt Kandel The Sopranos & Glengarry Glen Ross for bonus points

To further prove how plentiful their cast truly was, Tony Sirico - yes that's Paulie Walnuts from The Sopranos - appears in the film only as a photograph! To highlight this again - he appears as A STILL IMAGE!

Tony Sirico - Toy Torillo

I don't think this cast can be beaten. I know Oceans Eleven has a great cast - but this canes it and is way cooler. I'd love to hear if there's better, but I somehow doubt it.

Old for New

Robert Waddilove January 14, 2012

Back in mid-November 2011 Apple announced that there was a potential faulty battery in the iPod Nano. When I first glanced this earth shattering news I just assumed (remember, never assume) that it was referring to one of the new ones, which would make sense. But no, it was the ORIGINAL iPod Nano, the first iPod Nano, the first Apple product I ever bought! So I checked it out, entered the serial of my still working (but more a museum piece) iPod Nano (white 1GB).

"YES", Apple said, "Your iPod is in the batch with the potential faulty battery. Fill out your details in our gorgeous customer service website and trust us, the next few steps will just work".

Everything I read online at that point said it would be a like for like swap, were Apple secretly hoarding tonnes of every old product they produced, just in case there was a factory recall? It didn't make sense.

Anyway, I wrestled for many minutes about taking the risk of losing what is a design classic to getting one of the 'new ones'. But then thought back to good old Steve Jobs. The whole 'death is natures cleaning agent...", it made sense to just go for it, but my nostalgia for this product was oddly strong. It was the first Apple product I bought and it's safe to say it had the 'halo effect'. I remember around that time (2005) I was editing PGA Golf in Soho (that's what film school is for) on an edit suite called Discreet Edit. I was starting to get heavily interested into tech/gadgets, reading the blogs and taking time to understand what was actually good or bad in the world of tech. I think it was the first Apple keynote I followed on a live blog (probably engadget), and I just got completely caught up with it all. And when the photo's came through of Jobs' preso, you know the bit where he pulls the nano out of that weird small pocket you get in jeans, it's just genius showmanship - and the product was just beautiful. For me it's one of their best designs - so simple, clean and right.

Needless to say I was hooked. And when it was released I went to the Apple Store in Regent Street to grab one, and proceeded to sync it up with my crappy £300 no-name laptop. I think in about 6 months I'd bought the top end black MacBook - which I still use. Now, nearly every electronic product I use is from Apple - both for work and play. The only thing out of that equation is the TV and media centre - I'm sure that may change soon.

Anyway, I received the new iPod nano (6th Gen) yesterday - in a completely efficient process from Apple - and it looks amazing. The touch interface makes great use of the iOS style of UI, so much so I'm constantly looking for the Home button.

I'm still quite nostalgic for that old nano, but the new nano is great and might even make me run with it. So I guess the morale is embrace the new and put the old in a museum.

(I still prefer the original though).