Monday, April 25, 2011

Movie Design - Living in Rear Window





Link To: Design Sponge

Movie Design - Living in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid





Link To: Design Sponge

Creativity

Creativity comes from looking for the unexpected and stepping outside your own experience.    -Masaru Ibuka

‘The Godfather’ Tops List of Films People Pretend to Have Seen



A new survey conducted by British video rental service LOVEFiLM affirmed what we already knew, but don’t necessarily like to admit: People lie about having seen films they haven’t. The poll surveyed Brits to find out whether they’d ever lied about seeing movies they hadn’t — and if so, which movies they’d fibbed about watching. 80% of respondents confessed to having fudged the truth about their cinematic knowledge at some point, with Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather topping the list of movies people pretend to have seen. Read more results after the jump.
The top ten movies included a range of genres, from romantic drama (Casablanca, #2) to science fiction (2001: A Space Odyssey, #4) to comedy (This is Spinal Tap, #6), and spanned across several decades. What they all seem to have in common is that they’re considered classics, and they’re popular films that tons of people have actually seen — just maybe not as many as you think. A reported 30% of respondents admitted to having lied about The Godfather, which suggests that a good chunk of the people you know who claim to have seen the film may not be telling the truth.
LOVEFiLM’s poll is by no means scientific, and as it took place in the UK there’s no saying how American fibs might vary. But based on a quick survey of my friends, as well as my own experiences, I’m guessing we Americans aren’t that much more honest. I, for one, found myself in such a situation just a few days ago. Titanic came up in a conversation I was having, and rather than admit I’d never seen it, I just sort of let everyone assume I had. At the time, it struck me as a whole lot simpler than having to derail the current conversation to go through the “How have you not seen Titanic? Everyone’s seen Titanic!” script all over again.
1. The Godfather (30 per cent)
2. Casablanca (13 per cent)
3. Taxi Driver (11 per cent)
4. 2001: A Space Odyssey (9 per cent)
5. Reservoir Dogs (8 per cent)
6. This Is Spinal Tap (7 per cent)
7. Apocalypse Now (6 per cent)
8. Goodfellas (5 per cent)
=8. Blade Runner (5 per cent)
10. The Great Escape (4 per cent)

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Visual Stories - The world's most complicated Rube Goldberg machine

It may not portray the most accurate representation of science (or history), but this Rube Goldberg machine designed by engineering students at Purdue does tell a compelling story, and, with 244 steps to water a single flower, it does earn the title of World's Most Complicated Rube Goldberg contraption—edging out previous record holders at Michigan's Ferris State University, who'd built a machine with 230 steps.




Link To: How it was Made

What If - What The ‘I Am Legend’ Zombies Could Have Looked Like



Special Effects guru Steve Johnson has just released a video that shows an unused makeup test for the zombies in the 2007 Will Smith hit. Apparently Director Francis Lawrence wasn’t entirely happy with how the actors looked in this makeup and eventually just went to full CG creations. After watching the videos below, though, it’s hard to imagine something grosser than the practical effects. It would have been a whole different movie.

Thanks to Shock Till You Drop and /Film reader Kevin McCarney.

Visual Stories - "Touching Stories" - iPad Demo + Behind The Scenes

by Tool of North America



"Touching Stories" - iPad Demo + Behind The Scenes from Tool of North America on Vimeo.

Tool of North America and Domani Studios teamed up to bring 4 interactive stories to the iPad. By touching, shaking and turning your iPad, you can navigate, unlock and reveal unexpected variations in each of these stories. Shot by 5 different directors, these interactive, live-action, short stories evolve storytelling in ways that haven't been done before on the iPad.

Giving Camelot the National Geographic Look

Find out how Camelot has been re-imagined.



Sword and sorcery epics are back on TV, with Starz' Camelot facing off with HBO's Game of Thrones. In the case of this post-modern take on the Arthurian legend, Camelot (airing Fridays at 10:00 pm) is all about the romance, the magic, the politics and falling in love with the wrong person, according to head writer Chris Chibnall.
Thus, when chaos threatens to engulf Britain, Merlin (Joseph Fiennes) installs the young and impetuous Arthur (Jamie Campbell Bower), the unknown heir to the throne raised from birth as a commoner. But half-sister Morgan (Eva Green) desires the crown as well and is willing to summon unnatural forces to grab it.
In conjunction with an overall naturalistic look, the vfx achieves a National Geographic quality. Arc Prods. (formerly Starz Animation Toronto) has created about 300 vfx shots throughout the 10-episodes for season one, under the leadership of Bret Culp, the visual effects producer, Patrik Witzman, the CG supervisor and Maria Gordon, the compositing supervisor.
Julian Parry (House of Wax), the overall visual effects supervisor, says Camelot is the perfect blend of practical and CG, and that the bulk of the CG work is divided into four main areas: Camelot Castle, Pendragon Castle, historic period landscapes and Merlin's Magic. Maya, boujou, Nuke and Photoshop were the primary tools... LINK TO: Animation World Network



Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Create.


‘Men must live and create. Live to the point of tears.’ ~Albert Camus
Post written by Leo Babauta.
It’s amazing how many people I talk to who tell me they want to create a new blog, write a book, start a new business, change careers, make something new.
But they keep putting it off.
Does that sound familiar? You’ve been wanting to do something different, but you don’t have the time (or maybe the energy) right now? A million things on your to-do list, a schedule packed full, meetings that keep coming up. You’ll get to your Big Thing, but later. There’s all the time in the world to do it later, right?
That time will never come. Not if you don’t create that time yourself.
Seize the bull by the horns, grasp it tenaciously, never let it go. Time has a habit of trampling over us, so softly we don’t even notice but so powerfully we become crushed over the course of weeks and years.
I had two jobs, six kids and marathon training going on when I created Zen Habits. There was no time, but I put up a single blog post. The next day I did two posts, even though I had no time. That month I did about 30 posts (not all are still online), despite there being no time.
I had no time, so I created it. Time is often said to be our most limited resource, but it’s not true. We can create time. It takes the sheer force of will to do it, but it can be created.

Time doesn’t fall into your lap. It isn’t handed to you by a kindly old gentleman. You must create it, taking from the world the raw materials you need and shaping it with your bare dirty blistered hands, pushing the clay into form from its shapeless muddy glob.
I had no time to create Zen Habits, and yet today it stands, alive and breathing with pattering heart. I created the time, taking some from television watching, some from meetings, some from saying no to the endless requests on my time by co-workers and wellmeaning friends, some from other important projects that I put off. I put off important things to create time for The Most Important Thing. I said no to others I cared about to say yes to the thing I needed to make.
Say no to everything else. Put off what can be held at bay for the time being. And create time for what is necessary.
Make something. Bring new creative life into the world, change the lives of others, and in doing so, change yours.
You have the power to create time, and the will to create. Don’t squander it, my friend.
Link To: zen habits

Monday, April 18, 2011

Creativity/Art

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.
-Scott Adams

Sunday, April 17, 2011

The Human Experiance

An ambitious and well executed documentary film about what it means to be human and to live life. Bravo.