Wow. Another great video from Tony Zhou, this guy should start his own film school. I wish I had films like this when I was studying film. Boils everything down so simply and with perfect examples to illustrate his point.
Really makes me want to watch some Kurosawa all over again. Vividly remember some big movement in Kagemusha, all that rage expressed in a sudden violent move.
What a great idea, to compare the first and final frames of films. I love observations like this, really shows the beauty of these films and also highlights how much detail great directors go into with their work.
This is so well put together and with some fantastic film choices by Jacob T. Swinney, who I linked to before with his film Evolution of Batman in Cinema, and is reflectingly scored with Thomas Newman's "Any Other Name" from American Beauty.
I picked out some of my favourite stills from the edit below.
Thought this pretty much summed up the whole conversation around using YouTube creators in branded content, whilst also summing up marketeers seeming obsession with speaking to millennials (who don't really buy much yet!).
Via Marketing Week (Paywall)
I've had the idea of starting a podcast for a while now, and love that I've been able to make a start with some friends at work. Speaking to the design team at Across the Pond, we often discuss things quite deeply, even just about one film we'd just seen. So it felt like a no brainer to start with a design focused podcast. We kicked off in February with our first podcast which covered Art of the Title's Top 10 Title sequences of 2014. Was a buzz to have Art of the Title and their editor tweet it and say some nice things about it.
Across the Pond Design Podcast #1
This week we recorded our second one, this time about a personal film from Mike Brookes, our Head of Design at Across the Pond. It was really fun to hear why he made the film and what inspired him during in the process.
Across the Pond Design Podcast #2
I'm doing all the editing and the accompanying blog post, and it is weird to hear yourself at the best of times, but when you're fumbling over your words or trying to remember that interesting anecdote you heard/read/saw on a podcast/Twitter/YouTube, you can't help but kick yourself. I have made the error of doing the podcast with a Jackhammer, which is a delicious beer, but with a 7.2% alcohol volume it hits you like a proverbial Jackhammer in about 10 minutes, so it's no wonder I'm losing my thread. (Note to self, water during, beer after).
Anyway, looking forward to doing more and branching out to some other subjects in the future.
Finally got round to seeing Birdman tonight. Really really enjoyed it, a great story with brilliant characters you cared about (or were interested in getting to know more) and all told in such a seamless style, with hidden cuts and steadicam making it flow like theatre. (Which I think was the intention). It carries you through at a constant steady pace and does bring this documentary feel to it. Sounds like it was fun to make with this style of long takes and free flowing steadicam weaving its way around the theatre and other locations:
Andrea Riseborough, meanwhile, described the process as "wonderful", mentioning how it was possible to hear the filming of a sequence from far away before the camera arrived and then "the magic happens with you, and then everything leaves you, and everything's silent."
Via Wikipedia
The music was brilliant too, I've seen Whiplash already, and it did remind me of that - which I guess is a shame in some small way as it paints it with that brush. But the effect was brilliant, really kept you on edge and kept this constant pace going on and on, driving you through each scene and never really knowing what the hell was going to happen next.
When I left the cinema at night (Odeon Covent Garden), it was like walking out in a scene from the film, so I put the soundtrack on my phone and wandered through a bustling Soho with drizzle in the night sky. Walking past the various theatre's, with those drums pounding was cool - it's the big kid in me, but it was quite a buzz. Ha!
Ultimately there was a really interesting point I took away from the film, that feeling of wanting to leave an impression, or dare I say a legacy or doing something that feels important in this short time we have. His need to create something meaningful to make amends for how he lived his life was mirrored with his daughter showing him how humans have spent so little time on earth with tissue paper (which he went on to wipe his nose with!). This quote sums up the absurdity of it all though:
Riggan: The last time I flew here from LA, George Clooney was sitting two seats in front of me. With those cuff links, and that... ridiculous chin. We ended up flying through this really bad storm. The plane started to rattle and shake, and everyone on board was crying, and praying. And I just sat there. Sat there thinking that when Sam opened that paper it was going to be Clooney's face on the front page. Not mine. Did you know that Farrah Fawcett died on the same day as Michael Jackson?
Via IMDB
It also had some really striking posters created for the marketing of the film.
