Momentum

Verizon Enterprise Brand Video Timelapse

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Maragos) — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 13:22:49 PST

Verizon Enterprise Brand Video
Alex Maragos

Verizon Enterprise Brand Video
A series of footage & timelapses i shot for Verizon. The commercial was produced by UN Commercials & Directed by Tracy Helms.

Verizon is a global leader in delivering broadband, video and other wireless and wireline communications services to mass market, business, government and wholesale customers. Verizon Wireless operates America's largest and most reliable wireless voice and 3G network. Verizon also provides communications, information and entertainment services over America's most advanced fiber-optic network, and delivers innovative, seamless business solutions to customers around the world. The company's headquarters are located in the Verizon Building at 140 West Street in Lower Manhattan, New York City.

Visit: UN Commercials | Unleaded Studios New York | Verizon
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New York Times: Fourteen Actors Acting - A video Gallery of Classic Screen Types

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Maragos) — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 04:14:05 PST

Fourteen Actors Acting
The New York Times

14 Actors Acting - Javier Bardem
New York Times produced a video gallery of classic screen types called Fourteen Actors Acting which features Javier Bardem, Matt Damon, Robert Duvall, Michael Douglas, James Franco, Jesse Eisenberg, Natalie Portman and others.

All videos were shot on Red Epic & Red One directed by Solve Sundsbo. NY Times won a News and Documentary Emmy for the “Fourteen Actors Acting” portfolio.

Karly Domb Sadof wrote on The New York Times: “The Hurt Locker,” winner of the 2010 Oscar for best picture, took 131 minutes to unfold. What kind of story can be told in just one minute?

With a gifted performer, quite a story indeed. From Tilda Swinton’s agonized Joan of Arc turn to James Franco’s suave self-seduction, the minutes add up to a kind of minifestival in “Fourteen Actors Acting: A Video Gallery of Classic Screen Types.” These brief clips portray not only the art, but also the joy and vigor of performance.

They were directed by Solve Sundsbo of Norway, whose clients as a fashion photographer have included Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent and Dolce & Gabbana. The videos accompany the black-and-white portraits Mr. Sundsbo shot for “The Scene Makers: Actors Who Defined Cinema in 2010,” in the Hollywood Issue of The New York Times Magazine.

14 Actors Acting - Matt Damon
“You’re going from making iconic images to creating narratives,” he said, “but there is less of a narrative capacity in 60 seconds, so you need to create something like a poem that can lead your imagination.”

Kathy Ryan, the magazine’s photo editor, put the challenge simply: “We had to get somewhere really quickly with an impact. And it had to be beautiful.” Earlier magazine issues devoted to great performers have featured the work of Paolo Pellegrin and Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin, among others.

This is the first time that video has been as significant as the print portfolio. Ms. Ryan said she knew from the beginning that she did not want this year’s performers simply to sit for a portrait. “Celebrity portraiture demands reinvention,” she said.

That included the addition of music, which was composed by Owen Pallett, a Canadian musician, and recorded in Prague by the Czech Symphony Strings.

14 Actors Acting - Robert Duvall
“Music can steer what people see in a picture,” Ms. Ryan said. “It can drastically re-chart the direction the picture was taking the person.” A lively scene can turn menacing in just a few beats. And a visually suspenseful image can be made comical by just one chord.”

The process of writing the music for each video was instinctive, Mr. Pallett said. “As soon as the image hit my eyes I knew automatically.” However, his collaboration with a print publication and a photographer wasn’t crystal clear for everyone.

“I had a really hard time explaining the gig to my grandma,” Mr. Pallett said. “She was like, ‘Why are you writing music for a magazine?’”

Source/images: The New York Times
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CBS: "Person to Person" - George Clooney Interview

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Maragos) — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 03:04:54 PST

"Person to Person"
George Clooney

The Interview
A very interesting interview on CBS i really enjoyed. George Clooney just brought home a Golden Globe and is nominated for two Oscars for his work in "The Descendants" and "The Ides of March." "Person to Person" goes inside the Los Angeles home of the actor, writer, director, and humanitarian.

The Outtakes
George Clooney shares more stories -- about his pet pig -- yes, pig -- and about a prank for the record books. He also talks about learning values from his Dad, and his current mission in Sudan.

Behind the scenes
It's hard to say who's more irrepressible, George Clooney himself or his dog, Einstein, as the cameras work their way through his L.A. home.

Visit: Person to Person
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Aurora Borealis Timelapse - Norway 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Maragos) — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 23:49:42 PST

Aurora 2012
Christian Mülhauser

Flickr user Christian Mülhauser captured these amazing pictures of the Aurora Borealis in Norway during the last week of January 2012 & made a really beautiful timelapse of the Northern lights.

Christian says in his Vimeo description: "Last week I was again in Norway for shooting northern lights. This time I was very lucky, there was a lot of activity on the sky especially on the 24 January.

The scenes are from Ravnastua, Skoganvarre and Lakselv. The first two days I had a lot of trouble with frozen Cameras. It was -25°C (-13°F) and after 1-2 hours of shooting the lens was frozen.

I used a Canon 5D MarkII with ML, a 7D and a 550D with ML. All the scenes were shoot with this 3 lenses: Canon EF 24mm f/1.4 L on 5D, Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 on 7D and my Samyang 8mm/f3.5 on 550D."

Visit: Christian Mülhauser's Flickr Photostream
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Bruno Aveillan: "Wolves" - One of the best commercials ever shot

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Maragos) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 00:26:06 PST

Wolves
Bruno Aveillan

Director/Cinematographer: Bruno Aveillan
In 2010, Bruno Aveillan shot the above campaign for Shangri-La that metaphorically presents a philosophy imbued by generosity and humanism. This unique piece tells the story of a man who has been adopted and saved by wolves.

Bruno Aveillan (Toulouse, France) is one of the most distinguished commercials directors. After graduating from Ecole Supérieure des Beaux Arts in Toulouse, he joined Quad Productions in Paris in 1995.

Since then, he has directed award-winning short experimental movies and international commercials for clients such as Orange, Perrier, Louis Vuitton, Audi, Nike, Paco Rabanne, Quézac, Lexus, Guerlain, Nissan, SFR, Chanel, Time Warner, Volvo, MaxMara, Miller, Nintendo, Coca Cola, Gaz de France, Toyota, Peugeot etc. Alongside Martin Scorsese and Oliver Stone, Aveillan has directed four commercials for the launch of Orange.

Behind The Scenes of "Wolves"
In 2008, Aveillan directed the first ever brand campaign for Louis Vuitton: "Where will life take you" (90" format, translated into 14 languages). This spot evokes "the soul of travel". It has received international awards including 2008 Gold Clio Award, Gold Award at the 2008 London International Awards, Epica, Cristal. The music was composed by Gustavo Santaolalla.

Agency: Ogilvy & Mather, Hong Kong
Creative Director: Pierre Desfretier
Producer: James Brook-Partridge
Account servicing: Adam O'Conor, Laura Le Roy
Production Company: Quad Productions
Music Composer: Bruno Coulais
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The Most Beautiful Street in the World (Photos)

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Maragos) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:00:01 PST

The Most Beautiful Street in the World
Stephen Messenger
Flickr user Stephen Messenger captured these really impressive pictures of a street in Brazil with his iPhone 4S. A gorgeous forest-like street full of tipuana trees called Rua Gonçalo de Carvalho, located in the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre. The amazing street has the nickname "Green Tunnel" for obvious reasons.

Visit: Stephen Messenger's Flickr Photostream
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Bobby Brown | Solar System

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Maragos) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 10:29:57 PST

Bobby Brown | Solar System
Clarke Visuals

Private terrain parks, early morning snowmobile laps, and double corks make up the life of Bobby Brown as he gets ready for X Games in Breckenridge, Colorado. Cinematographer Michael Clarke shot the above stunning video with just a Sony FS100, some Canon glass, a Glidetrack HD-4000 and one custom RedRock rig. The work is simply amazing.

For the record, Bobby came into Big Air on a mission and walked away with the gold. In doing so, Bobby became the only skier in Winter X history to win two Big Air gold medals.

Visit: Clarke Visuals
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Marlon Roudette Anti-Hero Music Video shot by Jeremy Rall

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Maragos) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 04:39:25 PST

Marlon Roudette - Anti-Hero
Jeremy Rall

Director: Jeremy Rall | DP: Adam Santelli
Music Video Director Jeremy Rall shot Marlon's "Anti-Hero" on Canon 5DmkII and 7D (PL mount) with a set of ZEISS Super Seeds (18mm, 25mm, 35mm, 50mm, 85mm), one Angenieux HR 25MM-250MM, a 50mm MACRO and a LensBaby kit. He also used a GoPro for the grill shot in the driving footage. The music video was shot on Technicolor's Cinestyle.

In a discussion i had with Jeremy he told me that "The idea was to create these scenes, images and moments from a "lost film" and create a pastiche of cinematic images that are iconic and universal. These series of images are from the same movie, but they are only fragments, we wanted to leave it to the viewer’s imagination to fill in the missing pieces. A mix of a 60’s French New wave film and a 70’s road movie."

Jeremy Rall has gone on to direct a multitude of notable and award winning music videos working with such artists as Snoop Dogg, Ludacris, Jay-Z, Chingy, Beenie Man, Talib Kweli, Kelly Rowland, Sean Paul and Floetry. You can read my previous talk with Jeremy about his technical decisions in music video industry here

Visit: Jeremy Rall | Jeremy Rall Blog | Marlon Roudette
Read also: Jeremy Rall Interview on Momentum
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The Jefferson - Days Are Falling (Music video)

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Maragos) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:46:28 PST

The Jefferson - Days Are Falling
Paul Stefanidis

The Jefferson - Days Are Falling
My friend Paul Stefanidis shot & mastered the above work. Paul is a well-known music producer, audio engineer & composer based in Sydney Australia, who also explore the world of filmmaking & music video directing. Paul shot The Jefferson music video on a Canon 550D running Magic Lantern firmware with Canon L series lenses. Paul used Technicolor's Cinestyle graded with Pomfort LUT on FCP X. The video was shot at Urban Studios in Sydney. The track is available for free download here.

A few words about Paul
Paul Stefanidis worldwide clientele include working with companies such as Jack Morton, Fuji Film, Universal Music, EMI, Sony Music, dance music label Klik Records, and include with collaborations with artists such as Lenny Kravitz, Robin Gibb, Emmy and British Academy Award Winner Dick Lewzey, Award Winning film Director Marcus Dillistone but to mention a few. One of the highlights of his career was working on the 2004 Athens Olympic games opening and closing ceremonies. Not only did he Mix and Master the huge event but was also soundtrack production supervisor and worked on the project very closely with Georgos Koumendakis (Musical Director/ Concept Co-Creator) for 18 months.

He has had great success in both Europe and Australia with many of the project being Mastered at Viking having multiple awards and recognition and achieving number one status. This includes artists In Europe such as Ani Lorak , Saki's Rouvas, Dima Bilan but to mention a few and in Australia Include country legend Wendy Mathews, Rock sensation Short Stack, Noll Brothers, Aria 2009 winners Bertie Blackman and Platinum selling artist Gin Wigmore. Paul is totally committed to his projects and has a unique creative insight and experience that gives that final shine, in the words of Lee Groves (Janet Jackson, Black Eyed Peas) "If you want your stuff to sound better, send it to Paul."

Visit: Paul Stefanidis | Viking Lounge Mastering | The Jefferson
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Your Film Festival - By Ridley Scott & YouTube

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Maragos) — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 15:30:05 PST

Your Film Festival
Ridley Scott & YouTube

Your Film Festival by Ridley Scott
15 minutes to tell a story.
Millions of people to watch it.
$500.000 to make a new one for the world to see.
This is Your Film Festival.
You have until March 31st to submit a short, story-driven video. There’s no entry fee. It can be any format – short film, web-series episode, TV pilot – and any genre. In June, audiences around the world will vote, sending 10 deserving storytellers to open the 2012 Venice Film Festival where a Grand Prize Winner will be be rewarded with a $500,000 grant to create a new work, produced by Ridley Scott and his world class team.

Submissions open February 2nd and close March 31st. No entry fees.

Visit: Your Film Festival
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The Stunning Opening Titles to David Fincher's "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo"

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Maragos) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 01:26:26 PST

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
Opening Titles by Blur Studio

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Opening Titles.
Designed, animated & produced at Blur Studios (Tim Miller)
Since 1995, Blur Studio has been creating award-winning visual effects, animation and design, applying its creative skills across various mediums. Blur produce 3D character animation, motion design and visual effects for feature films and television, game cinematics & trailers, large format films, location-based entertainment, commercials and integrated media. Located in Venice, California, Blur combines the passion and excitement from directors, animators, designers, concept artists, and writers with clients into a collaborative creative approach that results in compelling visuals and storytelling.

In 2004, Blur was nominated for its first Academy Award for the original short film, “Gopher Broke.” This is one of five original films that Blur have written, directed and created over the years to develop original content and build a solid pipeline that can expand for feature film production. Blur have several projects in development, spanning all genres; sci-fi, action/adventure, fantasy as well as family features. And in addition to in-house development Blur has also joined forces with several accomplished directors and writers to develop feature films.

Today, with a state of the art in-house motion capture system, a driven team of directors, producers and artists, along with a character pipeline that brings life to all types of creatures, Blur’s roster of work continues to grow. Recently, Blur created all the space sequences in James Cameron’s blockbuster “Avatar,” and produced the critically-acclaimed trailers for LucasArts “Star Wars: The Old Republic” and “The Force Unleashed II.”

On the commercial front, Blur is currently spearheading two large campaigns for Toshiba’s new innovative products and playful Goldfish Crackers for Pepperidge Farm. In large format films Blur have an impressive 3d ride experience opening in Dubai in 2011 featuring immersive stereoscopic animation. And the list goes on as the company continue to work with clients like EA, Fox, Microsoft, Universal Studios, CBS, Y&R, Warner Bros., Activision, and Paramount Studios among others.

Visit: Blur | Onur Senturk | Dragon Tattoo
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Battle of the Best - Thessaloniki, Greece

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Maragos) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:42:47 PST

Battle of the Best
Art Cut Studio

Battle of the Best - Greece
Battle of the Best is one of the biggest hiphop events in Greece. On December 10, 2011 the battle celebrated its 7th anniversary with a very impressive event that took place in Club Mylos, Thessaloniki.

Some of the best b-dancers was there inc the world champion Lilou, Mar20 (France), Gravity (USA), Extremo (Spain) & Kefton (France). The event was hosted by J.Terra & Mario Bee (Nederlands). ArtCut, a Thessaloniki-based production studio, produced & released the above video from the event.

Visit: ArtCut
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Kevin Spacey - Motivational speech

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Maragos) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:29:03 PST

Kevin Spacey
Motivational speech

Kevin Spacey - Motivational speech
In this 90 second clip, Kevin Spacey gets to the core of what it takes. Some amazingly simple, powerful words for us all to live by.

"To want, and to be ambitious, and to want to be successful, is not enough. That’s just desire. To know what you want, to understand why you're doing it, to dedicate every breath in your body, to achieve. If you feel you have something to give, if you feel that your particular talent is worth developing, then there's nothing you can't achieve."

via Chase Jarvis
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Ice Cube Celebrates The Eames

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Maragos) — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 23:38:28 PST

Ice Cube Celebrates The Eames
Pacific Standard Time

Ice Cube Celebrates The Eames
Ice Cube Celebrates The Eames for Pacific Standard Time the birth of the LA art scene. For more info on Ice Cube & The Eames visit Pacific Standard Time.

Ice Cube drives Inglewood blvd. describing the Los Angeles that he knows. He talks of landmarks like The Forum, Five Torches, Cockatoo Inn, Brolly Hut, and Watts Towers. He refers to the 110 as "Gangsta Highway". Cube says coming from South Central LA teaches you how to be resourceful. The video cuts to Cube walking the Eames House perimeter, through the Eames living room, and sitting in the Eames lounge chair.

He brings us back to his NWA years when he studied architectural drafting before launching his rap career. One thing he learned that translates is to always have a plan. Cube describes the modern, green and resourceful building design of Charles and Ray Eames. Visionaries of connecting nature and structure. Cube ends by saying "Who are these people who got a problem with LA? Maybe they mad cuz they don't live here."

Thanks to Jeremy Rall
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James Cameron: Before Avatar ...a curious boy [TED Talk]

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Maragos) — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 14:44:42 PST

TED: James Cameron
Before Avatar ... a curious boy

James Cameron: Before Avatar ... a curious boy
James Cameron's big-budget (and even bigger-grossing) films create unreal worlds all their own. In this personal TED Talk, he reveals his childhood fascination with the fantastic -- from reading science fiction to deep-sea diving -- and how it ultimately drove the success of his blockbuster hits "Aliens," "The Terminator," "Titanic" and "Avatar.

TRANSCRIPT
I grew up on a steady diet of science fiction. In high school, I took a bus to school an hour each way every day. And I was always absorbed in a book, science fiction book, which took my mind to other worlds, and satisfied, in a narrative form, this insatiable sense of curiosity that I had.

And you know, that curiosity also manifested itself in the fact that whenever I wasn't in school I was out in the woods, hiking and taking "samples" -- frogs and snakes and bugs and pond water -- and bringing it back, looking at it under the microscope. You know, I was a real science geek. But it was all about trying to understand the world, understand the limits of possibility.

And my love of science fiction actually seemed mirrored in the world around me, because what was happening, this was in the late '60s, we were going to the moon, we were exploring the deep oceans. Jacques Cousteau was coming into our living rooms with his amazing specials that showed us animals and places and a wondrous world that we could never really have previously imagined. So, that seemed to resonate with the whole science fiction part of it.

And I was an artist. I could draw. I could paint. And I found that because there weren't video games and this saturation of CG movies and all of this imagery in the media landscape, I had to create these images in my head. You know, we all did, as kids having to read a book, and through the author's description, put something on the movie screen in our heads. And so, my response to this was to paint, to draw alien creatures, alien worlds, robots, spaceships, all that stuff. I was endlessly getting busted in math class doodling behind the textbook. That was -- the creativity had to find its outlet somehow.

And an interesting thing happened: The Jacques Cousteau shows actually got me very excited about the fact that there was an alien world right here on Earth. I might not really go to an alien world on a spaceship someday -- that seemed pretty darn unlikely. But that was a world I could really go to, right here on Earth, that was as rich and exotic as anything that I had imagined from reading these books.

So, I decided I was going to become a scuba diver at the age of 15. And the only problem with that was that I lived in a little village in Canada, 600 miles from the nearest ocean. But I didn't let that daunt me. I pestered my father until he finally found a scuba class in Buffalo, New York, right across the border from where we live. And I actually got certified in a pool at a YMCA in the dead of winter in Buffalo, New York. And I didn't see the ocean, a real ocean, for another two years, until we moved to California.

Since then, in the intervening 40 years, I've spent about 3,000 hours underwater, and 500 hours of that was in submersibles. And I've learned that that deep-ocean environment, and even the shallow oceans, are so rich with amazing life that really is beyond our imagination. Nature's imagination is so boundless compared to our own meager human imagination. I still, to this day, stand in absolute awe of what I see when I make these dives. And my love affair with the ocean is ongoing, and just as strong as it ever was.

But when I chose a career as an adult, it was filmmaking. And that seemed to be the best way to reconcile this urge I had to tell stories with my urges to create images. And I was, as a kid, constantly drawing comic books, and so on. So, filmmaking was the way to put pictures and stories together, and that made sense. And of course the stories that I chose to tell were science fiction stories: "Terminator," "Aliens" and "The Abyss." And with "The Abyss," I was putting together my love of underwater and diving with filmmaking. So, you know, merging the two passions.

Something interesting came out of "The Abyss," which was that to solve a specific narrative problem on that film, which was to create this kind of liquid water creature, we actually embraced computer generated animation, CG. And this resulted in the first soft-surface character, CG animation that was ever in a movie. And even though the film didn't make any money -- barely broke even, I should say -- I witnessed something amazing, which is that the audience, the global audience, was mesmerized by this apparent magic.

You know, it's Arthur Clarke's law that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. They were seeing something magical. And so that got me very excited. And I thought, "Wow, this is something that needs to be embraced into the cinematic art." So, with "Terminator 2," which was my next film, we took that much farther. Working with ILM, we created the liquid metal dude in that film. The success hung in the balance on whether that effect would work. And it did, and we created magic again, and we had the same result with an audience -- although we did make a little more money on that one.

So, drawing a line through those two dots of experience came to, "This is going to be a whole new world," this was a whole new world of creativity for film artists. So, I started a company with Stan Winston, my good friend Stan Winston, who is the premier make-up and creature designer at that time, and it was called Digital Domain. And the concept of the company was that we would leapfrog past the analog processes of optical printers and so on, and we would go right to digital production. And we actually did that and it gave us a competitive advantage for a while.

But we found ourselves lagging in the mid '90s in the creature and character design stuff that we had actually founded the company to do. So, I wrote this piece called "Avatar," which was meant to absolutely push the envelope of visual effects, of CG effects, beyond, with realistic human emotive characters generated in CG, and the main characters would all be in CG, and the world would be in CG. And the envelope pushed back, and I was told by the folks at my company that we weren't going to be able to do this for a while.

So, I shelved it, and I made this other movie about a big ship that sinks. (Laughter) You know, I went and pitched it to the studio as "'Romeo and Juliet' on a ship: "It's going to be this epic romance, passionate film." Secretly, what I wanted to do was I wanted to dive to the real wreck of "Titanic." And that's why I made the movie. (Applause) And that's the truth. Now, the studio didn't know that. But I convinced them. I said, "We're going to dive to the wreck. We're going to film it for real. We'll be using it in the opening of the film. It will be really important. It will be a great marketing hook." And I talked them into funding an expedition. (Laughter)

Sounds crazy. But this goes back to that theme about your imagination creating a reality. Because we actually created a reality where six months later, I find myself in a Russian submersible two and a half miles down in the north Atlantic, looking at the real Titanic through a view port. Not a movie, not HD -- for real. (Applause)

Now, that blew my mind. And it took a lot of preparation, we had to build cameras and lights and all kinds of things. But, it struck me how much this dive, these deep dives, was like a space mission. You know, where it was highly technical, and it required enormous planning. You get in this capsule, you go down to this dark hostile environment where there is no hope of rescue if you can't get back by yourself. And I thought like, "Wow. I'm like, living in a science fiction movie. This is really cool."

And so, I really got bitten by the bug of deep-ocean exploration. Of course, the curiosity, the science component of it -- it was everything. It was adventure, it was curiosity, it was imagination. And it was an experience that Hollywood couldn't give me. Because, you know, I could imagine a creature and we could create a visual effect for it. But I couldn't imagine what I was seeing out that window. As we did some of our subsequent expeditions, I was seeing creatures at hydrothermal vents and sometimes things that I had never seen before, sometimes things that no one had seen before, that actually were not described by science at the time that we saw them and imaged them.

So, I was completely smitten by this, and had to do more. And so, I actually made a kind of curious decision. After the success of "Titanic," I said, "OK, I'm going to park my day job as a Hollywood movie maker, and I'm going to go be a full-time explorer for a while." And so, we started planning these expeditions. And we wound up going to the Bismark, and exploring it with robotic vehicles. We went back to the Titanic wreck. We took little bots that we had created that spooled a fiber optic. And the idea was to go in and do an interior survey of that ship, which had never been done. Nobody had ever looked inside the wreck. They didn't have the means to do it, so we created technology to do it.

So, you know, here I am now, on the deck of Titanic, sitting in a submersible, and looking out at planks that look much like this, where I knew that the band had played. And I'm flying a little robotic vehicle through the corridor of the ship. When I say, "I'm operating it," but my mind is in the vehicle. I felt like I was physically present inside the shipwreck of Titanic. And it was the most surreal kind of deja vu experience I've ever had, because I would know before I turned a corner what was going to be there before the lights of the vehicle actually revealed it, because I had walked the set for months when we were making the movie. And the set was based as an exact replica on the blueprints of the ship.

So, it was this absolutely remarkable experience. And it really made me realize that the telepresence experience -- that you actually can have these robotic avatars, then your consciousness is injected into the vehicle, into this other form of existence. It was really, really quite profound. And it may be a little bit of a glimpse as to what might be happening some decades out as we start to have cyborg bodies for exploration or for other means in many sort of post-human futures that I can imagine, as a science fiction fan.

So, having done these expeditions, and really beginning to appreciate what was down there, such as at the deep ocean vents where we had these amazing, amazing animals -- they're basically aliens right here on Earth. They live in an environment of chemosynthesis. They don't survive on sunlight-based system the way we do. And so, you're seeing animals that are living next to a 500-degree-Centigrade water plumes. You think they can't possibly exist.

At the same time I was getting very interested in space science as well -- again, it's the science fiction influence, as a kid. And I wound up getting involved with the space community, really involved with NASA, sitting on the NASA advisory board, planning actual space missions, going to Russia, going through the pre-cosmonaut biomedical protocols, and all these sorts of things, to actually go and fly to the international space station with our 3D camera systems. And this was fascinating. But what I wound up doing was bringing space scientists with us into the deep. And taking them down so that they had access -- astrobiologists, planetary scientists, people who were interested in these extreme environments -- taking them down to the vents, and letting them see, and take samples and test instruments, and so on.

So, here we were making documentary films, but actually doing science, and actually doing space science. I'd completely closed the loop between being the science fiction fan, you know, as a kid, and doing this stuff for real. And you know, along the way in this journey of discovery, I learned a lot. I learned a lot about science. But I also learned a lot about leadership. Now you think director has got to be a leader, leader of, captain of the ship, and all that sort of thing.

I didn't really learn about leadership until I did these expeditions. Because I had to, at a certain point, say, "What am I doing out here? Why am I doing this? What do I get out of it?" We don't make money at these damn shows. We barely break even. There is no fame in it. People sort of think I went away between "Titanic" and "Avatar" and was buffing my nails someplace, sitting at the beach. Made all these films, made all these documentary films for a very limited audience.

No fame, no glory, no money. What are you doing? You're doing it for the task itself, for the challenge -- and the ocean is the most challenging environment there is -- for the thrill of discovery, and for that strange bond that happens when a small group of people form a tightly knit team. Because we would do these things with 10, 12 people, working for years at a time, sometimes at sea for two, three months at a time.

And in that bond, you realize that the most important thing is the respect that you have for them and that they have for you, that you've done a task that you can't explain to someone else. When you come back to the shore and you say, "We had to do this, and the fiber optic, and the attentuation, and the this and the that, all the technology of it, and the difficulty, the human-performance aspects of working at sea," you can't explain it to people. It's that thing that maybe cops have, or people in combat that have gone through something together and they know they can never explain it. Creates a bond, creates a bond of respect.

So, when I came back to make my next movie, which was "Avatar," I tried to apply that same principle of leadership, which is that you respect your team, and you earn their respect in return. And it really changed the dynamic. So, here I was again with a small team, in uncharted territory, doing "Avatar," coming up with new technology that didn't exist before. Tremendously exciting. Tremendously challenging. And we became a family, over a four-and-half year period. And it completely changed how I do movies. So, people have commented on how, "Well, you know, you brought back the ocean organisms and put them on the planet of Pandora." To me, it was more of a fundamental way of doing business, the process itself, that changed as a result of that.

So, what can we synthesize out of all this? You know, what are the lessons learned? Well, I think number one is curiosity. It's the most powerful thing you own. Imagination is a force that can actually manifest a reality. And the respect of your team is more important than all the laurels in the world. I have young filmmakers come up to me and say, "Give me some advice for doing this." And I say, "Don't put limitations on yourself. Other people will do that for you -- don't do it to yourself, don't bet against yourself, and take risks."

NASA has this phrase that they like: "Failure is not an option." But failure has to be an option in art and in exploration, because it's a leap of faith. And no important endeavor that required innovation was done without risk. You have to be willing to take those risks. So, that's the thought I would leave you with, is that in whatever you're doing, failure is an option, but fear is not. Thank you. (Applause)

James Cameron TED talk transcript source: TED
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The most brilliant & powerful AIDS Awareness video: Sidaction | The Human Hourglass

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Maragos) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 05:34:06 PST

Sidaction | The Human Hourglass
AIDS Awareness Day

Sidaction [NSFW warning due to nudity]
The most brilliant & powerful AIDS Awareness Campaign. A really powerful work directed by Dimitri Daniloff via Marcassin Paris, created by Leo Burnett France, by creative director Stephan Ferens, art director Edward Capelle, copywriter Stéphane Santana and TV producers Gabriel Duforesto & Bertrand Ayache-Anguenot. Post Production: Mikros Image. Released: Oct 2007.

The 39-second spot shows the naked bodies of men and women writhing in a half light sexual orgy. It finally becomes clear that they’re in the context of a huge hourglass. The light changes from amber to white as bodies fall from through the hourglass. The text: “Dans le monde une personne meurt du sida toutes les 10 seondes. Protégez-vous. Sidaction -- ensemble contre le SIDA.” Every 10 seconds, someone dies of Aids in the world. Protect yourself.

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How to lose $2400 in 24 seconds

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Maragos) — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 02:47:45 PST

How to lose $2400 in 24 seconds
Regrettably filmed by Kurtis Hough

One word: Ouch!

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The Denali Experiment

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Maragos) — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 23:31:52 PST

The Denali Experiment
By Camp4Collective

The Denali Experiment
A really beautiful work by Camp4Collective shot on 5D & TM900. Free-ride skier Sage Cattabriga-Alosa and big mountain snowboarder Lucas Debari step out of their elements and make an attempt to climb, ski and snowboard Denali.

Sage and Lucas get a helping hand from a huge cast of seasoned and professional climbers and ski mountaineers from the North Face Athlete Team, including Hilaree O’Neill, Conrad Anker, Ingrid Backstrom, Jim Zellers, Emilio Previtali and Giulia Monego, as the two embark on the hardest expedition of their lives.

"In a lot of ways, this is the antithesis of the modern ski porn flick" says Director Jimmy Chin and continues: "A lot of rock star skiers and not much skiing! Ha! Well, hopefully having a narrative helps the piece along. It was a tough piece to put together with all the different characters. I decided to focus the story on Sage and Lucas and was hoping the piece would give people a sense of who those two characters are besides being rock star skiers/snowboarders. I often feel like the whole process of skiing and who the skiers actually are gets lost in most of the films today."

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Francis Ford Coppola on the evolution of movie sound

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Maragos) — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 23:59:37 PST

Francis Ford Coppola
Τhe Evolution of Movie Sound

Francis Ford Coppola Talks about the Evolution of Movie Sound
As early as the Apocalypse Now movie in 1979 when Francis Ford Coppola and sound designer Walter Murch pioneered a quadraphonic sound system for the film tour, Coppola has made sound and audio technology an important part of filmmaking, including building a dedicated mixing facility, American Zoetrope.

In 2010, under the direction of Coppola, Zoetrope was turned into one of the first post-production facilities to install a Meyer Sound EXP cinema loudspeaker system on its rerecording stage and has since upgraded the other rooms to EXP. Tetro and Twixt are two of his movies that were mixed on an EXP system.

In this video, Coppola chats about the evolving role of sound in his storytelling and his sound facility in Napa.

Visit: Meyer Sound
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HUGO: Martin Scorsese & James Cameron discuss the use of 3D

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Maragos) — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 08:24:29 PST

Martin Scorsese & James Cameron
The power of 3D in storytelling

Martin Scorsese & James Cameron on 3D [HUGO]
On Nov 6, after a screening of Hugo at L.A.'s DGA Theater, THR sat down with a laudatory James Cameron, who was in the audience, and Martin Scorsese for an exclusive discussion of the movie and its use of 3D.

Cameron: "It doesn't serve the film to talk about the 3D as if it's a separate thing. I mean, of course it's a lead story that a filmmaker of Marty's stature and pedigree is working in 3D. Because it's sort of breaking down this idea that 3D is for just hyper-commercial films. What you did was you integrated it with the color, with the composition, with the camera movement, with the acting. Everything. I would say it's like a 16-cylinder Bugatti firing perfectly on every cylinder. It's absolutely the best 3D photography that I've seen. It's constantly supportive of what you're doing artistically and never detractive."

Throughout his extraordinary career, Academy Award-winning director Martin Scorsese has brought his unique vision and dazzling gifts to life in a series of unforgettable films. This holiday season the legendary storyteller invites you to join him on a thrilling journey to a magical world with his first-ever 3-D film, based on Brian Selznick’s award-winning, imaginative New York Times best-seller, “The Invention of Hugo Cabret.”

HUGO is the astonishing adventure of a wily and resourceful boy whose quest to unlock a secret left to him by his father will transform Hugo and all those around him, and reveal a safe and loving place he can call home. The film stars Asa Butterfield, Chloe Grace Moretz, Sacha Baron Cohen, Ben Kingsley, Jude Law, Ray Winstone, Christopher Lee, Helen McCrory, Richard Griffiths, Frances de la Tour, Emily Mortimer, and Michael Stuhlbarg.

Visit: Hugo
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Wise words by John Jay of W+K on creativity. [video]

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Maragos) — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 01:35:04 PST

John Jay on creativity
Wieden + Kennedy

Photograph by Matthew Furman
John Jay is the Global Executive Creative Director at Wieden + Kennedy and a true legend in the Ad world. He graduated from Ohio State University majoring in Visual Communications and freelanced for many years on editorial design.

His big break came when Bloomingdale’s pegged him for the role of Creative Director. He was creative director from 1980 to 1993. In the '80s he was voted one of the most influential people in photography and in 1993 he left New York for a spot with Wieden + Kennedy in Portland Oregon, one of the largest independently-owned advertising agencies in the world.

NYC based photographer Matthew Furman shot & directed John Jay for the "100 Most Creative People In Business" issue of Fast Company.

John Jay directed by Matthew Furman
In this exceptional video John says: "Sometimes in our industry, our professionalism, we get [put into] silos. - [They say:] Well.. he's an Art Director, i would like him to write some words too, let's see if he can write a little bit. [Others say:] Oh, he's a Strategy person, i like to hear her ideas as well, not just think of the strategy. -

So i think it's our goal and we all wish to break out of those silos. The longer you work, the more people want to put you in a silo. Why? So they can define who you are by their terms. Our job is to never let anyone define who we are by their terms..."

via Fast Company: DAN WIEDEN, cofounder of Wieden+Kennedy, is sure that John Jay, his agency's global executive creative director, does work related to advertising. He just can't quite describe it. Jay commutes -- between the shop's offices in Tokyo, Shanghai, London, and Amsterdam, where he identifies the most creative local people in art, music, and technology.

Jay unearths -- what's new, exciting, and bubbling up on the edges of places as unlikely as Delhi and Detroit, so he can feed that culture into the hive mind of the Portland, Oregon -- based powerhouse. (No wonder Advertising Age noted W+K's "sense of current culture" when it named the shop Creative Agency of the Year.) And in his free time, Jay runs his own company, Studio J.

Its latest project: "The Grove," a proposed blockwide "art hostel" for young global creatives -- musicians, filmmakers, artists, designers, hackers -- that he's developing near the front gates of Portland's old Chinatown with Ace Hotel cofounder Alex Calderwood and Goldsmith Blocks LLC.

But the veteran ad man, who's worked on campaigns for Nike, Uniqlo, and Target, is just getting started. "I consistently try to connect to the greater cultural world," he says, "in order to help make W+K a catalyst for innovation on a global scale in areas outside of what used to be called advertising."

Photograph by Matthew Furman
Sources: Chase Jarvis | Fast Company | W+K | Matthew Furman
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This is Black Rock Santorini

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Maragos) — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 13:36:00 PST

Shot & Edited by Alex Maragos
Available on: Vimeo | YouTube
Inside the Best New Studio in the World (voted 2009)
located at the Best Island in the World (voted 2011).
Black Rock Studios Santorini Residential Recordings
I had the pleasure to shoot Black Rock & also stay at the studio in August and it was one of the most beautiful weeks i had during this summer. It's a gorgeous place in a truly breathtaking island. A state-of-the-art recording studio located in Akrotiri at the southwestern tip of Santorini just 15 km away from Fira. And when we're talking about inspiration, location is everything.

I shot it with my 7D, various lenses, filters & my Glidetrack Hybrid. Edited & color corrected in FCP.

Black Rock is a combination luxury villa and world class recording studio located on the magnificent Greek island of Santorini. Build in a style that combines modern and traditional Cycladic architecture, Black Rock blends perfectly with the Aegean landscape. A heaven of inspiration and tranquility between sea and sun, offering a breathtaking panoramic view of the Aegean sea, and the volcanic islands.

Black Rock Studio won the Best New Studio In the World title by Audio Pro International (Industry Excellence Awards 2009). A judging panel of over 100 industry experts and executives, including some of the most respected figures in the business, voted & gave the title to Black Rock.

Santorini voted as the Best Island in the World by Travel + Leisure (World's Best Awards 2011 NYC). Santorini is a new World’s Best Island Overall winner, moving up from its No. 6 ranking on last year’s list of Top Islands Overall and displacing the Galápagos from the No 1 position.

Visit: Black Rock Studio
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24 Hours on an Aircraft Carrier (An ESPN Feature)

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Maragos) — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 11:09:32 PST

24 Hours on an Aircraft Carrier
By The Seventh Movement

24 Hours on an Aircraft Carrier
The Seventh Movement: "On 11-11-11, Veteran's Day, a basketball court assembled on the deck of the USS Carl Vinson for the Carrier Classic basketball game. But the action on the hardwood between Michigan State and North Carolina is no comparison to the teamwork that's seen here on any given day."

Produced by Sharon Kum-Matthews, ESPN.
Filmed & Edited by The Seventh Movement.

Visit: ESPN | ESPN BTS
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Canon C300

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Maragos) — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 01:23:26 PDT

Canon EOS C300
CINEMA EOS

Mobius by Vincent Laforet - Shot on Canon C300
TOKYO, November 4, 2011/HOLLYWOOD, California, November 3, 2011—Canon Inc. and Canon U.S.A., Inc. today raised the curtain on an all-new interchangeable-lens digital video camcorder that combines exceptional imaging performance with outstanding mobility and expandability to meet the demanding production needs of today's motion picture industry. The camcorder, which features a newly developed Super 35 mm-equivalent approximately 8.29-megapixel CMOS sensor, will be available in two models: the EOS C300 Digital Video Camcorder, equipped with an EF lens mount for compatibility with Canon's current diverse lineup of interchangeable EF lenses for EOS single-lens reflex (SLR) cameras and new EF Cinema Lens lineup; and the EOS C300 PL Digital Video Camcorder, with a PL lens mount for use with industry-standard PL lenses.

The introduction of the EOS C300/C300 PL coincides with the launch of the Cinema EOS System, marking Canon's full-fledged entry into the digital high-resolution production industry. The new professional digital cinematography system spans the lens, digital video camcorder and digital SLR camera product categories.

BTS of Mobius by Vincent Laforet - Shot on Canon C300
Star-Studded Supporting Cast

Equipped with an EF lens mount, the EOS C300 is supported by an all-star cast of high-performance EF lenses, not only the wide array of interchangeable EF lenses for EOS SLR cameras that have earned the trust and respect of photographers around the world, but also the EF cinema lenses in the newly announced Cinema EOS System. When outfitted with a Canon EF lens, the C300's peripheral illumination correction*1 automatically corrects for vignetting in accordance with each lens's optical characteristics, and enables iris control from the camcorder.*1 Canon EF lenses also enable the recording of such metadata*1 as the name of the lens used, aperture setting and shutter speed.

Show-Stopping High-Resolution Full-HD Performance

The Canon EOS C300/C300 PL's newly developed Super 35 mm-equivalent CMOS sensor incorporates approximately 8.29 million effective pixels and has a pixel size that is larger than that for conventional professional camcorders, enabling greater light-gathering capabilities for enhanced sensitivity and reduced noise. The sensor reads Full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels) video signals for each of the three RGB primary colors, decreasing the incidence of moiré while realizing high resolution with 1,000 horizontal TV lines.

Supported by a heightened signal read-out speed, the CMOS sensor reduces rolling shutter skews, a phenomenon prevalent with CMOS sensors in which fast-moving subjects may appear diagonally distorted. Additionally, the powerful combination of the sensor with Canon's high-performance DIGIC DV III image processor facilitates high-precision gamma processing and smooth gradation expression.

In addition to MPEG-2 Full HD (MPEG2 422@HL compliant) compression, the EOS C300/C300 PL employs 4:2:2 color sampling for high-resolution performance that minimizes the appearance of "jaggies" at chroma edges. Additionally, with a maximum recording rate of 50 Mbps, the camcorder supports the recording of high-quality video.

The camcorder's video and audio recording file format adopts the industry-standard MXF (Material eXchange Format), an open source file format ideally suited for non-linear editing systems. Recording to versatile, readily available CF cards, the EOS C300/C300 PL realizes high cost-performance and, equipped with two CF card slots, makes possible the simultaneous recording of video data to two CF cards.

Ready for Action

With a compact body design measuring 133 (w) x 179 (h) x 171 mm (d), the Canon EOS C300/C300 PL delivers exceptional maneuverability, enabling shooting from vantage points all but inaccessible to large cinema cameras, such as close to the ground for high-impact low-angle shots, and alongside walls. In accordance with on-location shooting needs, the camcorder can be outfitted with a handle, grip, thumb rest and monitor unit, and offers an array of industry-standard terminals, including HD/SD-SDI video output for the external recording of high-quality video content. When using a WFT-E6B wireless file transmitter for EOS digital SLR cameras (sold separately), the EOS C300/C300 PL can be controlled remotely by means of such common devices as smartphones or tablet PCs.

The camcorder is equipped with four start/stop buttons positioned at various locations to satisfy any preferred camera-holding style, and can be outfitted with a variety of third-party accessories, including matte boxes, follow focuses and external video and audio recorders. The unit also achieves seamless integration with third-party editing systems and provides added peace of mind through its dust-proof, drip-proof construction and built-in cooling system.

The new camcorder allows users to adjust image quality to match that of professional camcorders and EOS-series digital SLR cameras, and offers Canon Log Gamma, enabling flat image quality with subdued contrast and sharpness for maximum freedom in post-production editing and processing. In addition to frame rates of 59.41i, 50.00i, 29.97P, 25.00P and 23.98P, the EOS C300/C300 PL features a 24.00p mode, matching the 24 frame-per-second frame rate of film cameras for high compatibility with common film-production workflows.

Other features include fast-motion shooting, achieved by capturing fewer frames per second to create action up to 60x normal speed, and slow-motion down to 1/2.5x*2 made possible by capturing more frames per second. Frame rates between 1 and 60 frames per second (fps)*3 can be adjusted in increments of 1 fps. Additionally, a selection of Custom Pictures lets users freely adjust image quality for greater control over how content looks.

Source: Canon Press Release | Vincent Laforet
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Canon DSLR Under Development enabling the recording of 4K video

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Maragos) — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 23:56:07 PDT

Canon DSLR Under Development
Enabling the recording of 4k video

The new EOS 4k DSLR camera
under development (prototype)

TOKYO, November 4, 2011/HOLLYWOOD, California, November 3, 2011—Canon Inc. today announced that the company is developing a new-concept EOS-series digital single-lens reflex (SLR) camera. Incorporating an enhanced version of the video-capture capability offered in the current EOS-series lineup, the new camera will be ideally suited for cinematographic and other digital high-resolution production applications. The model will be equipped with a 35 mm full-frame CMOS sensor and, enabling the recording of 4K video* (at a frame rate of 24P, with Motion-JPEG compression), will make possible the type of exceptional image quality and sublime imaging expression to be expected from the next generation of "EOS Movies."

The announcement coincides with the launch of the Cinema EOS System, marking Canon's full-fledged entry into the digital high-resolution production industry. The new professional digital cinematography system spans the lens, digital video camcorder and digital SLR camera product categories.

Further details regarding the new EOS digital SLR camera currently under development, including the product name, specifications and scheduled launch date, have yet to be decided.

EOS Movie: A New Industry Standard

Movie recording has been a standard feature in all newly introduced Canon EOS-series digital SLR cameras since the launch of the EOS 5D Mark II in November 2008. Coupled with the diverse array of lenses in Canon's current interchangeable EF lens lineup, this feature has heralded rich visual expressive possibilities, delivering such characteristics as beautiful image blur and low noise while also garnering kudos for the mobility and maneuverability made possible through the cameras' compact and lightweight body designs.

The impressive images created by the combination of Canon EOS digital SLR cameras and EF lenses, known as "EOS Movies," have already earned their screen credentials on the sets of multiple productions, from television commercials and artist promotion videos to episodic dramas and even major motion pictures.

Source: Canon Press Release
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