I'm off...again!

I'm off to Leeds Festival so sorry in advance for the lack of blogs this weekend...

Philips RobotSkin TV commercial

I don't really like razor commercials but this one seems to be breaking some of the boundaries set by its predecessors. Rather than having the female draped over a well built male this advert shows a much more intimate relationship with the feminine aspect actually being a robot (suggesting machinery and masculinity).

With imagery very similar to Bjork and Chris Cunningham's work this advert takes a refreshing break from conventional razor commercials.

The Saga of Noggin The Nog: Tales of the Northlands

I remember watching this as a kid on VHS and loving the simple two dimensional animation, illustrated stills and the total dependence on narration to deliver each episode. I really admired the beautiful drawings and the sketchy stop motion animation that brought the stills to life. Enjoy!

HBO Voyeur

www.hbovoyeur.com

US cable network Home Box Office have recently launched an ambitous interactive video-based website. The concept was a multimedia experience that gives you a peek into what happens behind the countless windows we pass everyday.

The set up of the website is a single camera angle facing the front of an apartment block. Your cursor allows you to click on one of the eight rooms which will take away the walls of the apartment to reveal a cross-section of the building and the action taking place inside. The idea is that the story lines are simply action (no dialogue) but leave the audience wanting to know more. It is also possible to show all the video story lines at once as shown in the video below:

The site itself is a really good example of how video footage is becoming the next stage in website design and also shows how an audience can interact with a video website. It is also an interesting way of gaining a wider audience and providing a whole new slant on 'watching' something but at the same time is a little too perverse for my liking. The story lines do, however, make an interesting point about the fact that when people think no one is looking they are capable of things that are socially unexceptable, dark and impulsive. Please let me know what you think of this site.

Half Nelson (Film)

This was a fantastic independent film that I recommend any film-lover to watch. What really interested me about this film was the way it was shot; in an improvisational, documentary manner. Andrij Parekh shot the film almost entirely handheld (Parekh argues that the look is honest, naturalistic and straightforward). Many scenes were shot with the lens wide open and no filtration. The film seemed alot more focused on the performance of the actors and the handheld feel helped provide a much more basic and stipped down version of a movie in sharp contrast to mainstream film.

There were alot of simple light techniques used on-set to create a humble setting. In some scenes Parekh used just one light, a 1.2KW HMI directed through a window covered in tracing paper (1000H). The actual motel room curtains were used to cut and shape the light, making the whole room glow.

"It's important to me that the actors can inhabit a space without being blinded by lights on the set," he says. "It's something I learned from working with John Thomas and Harris Savides, ASC, as an apprentice. Light the room, not the faces. It was a great piece of advice."

I really loved some of the focus work on this film as well, there were some extreme close-up shots that made it almost difficult to follow thw action of the scene but made you really focus on the emotions being portrayed and the dialogue used.

Further information on the filming of Half Nelson available at www.kodak.com

The Young Knives Album Cover

I was in a music shop the other day and I saw the album cover for The Young Knives cd. I am not really sure what to make of it really. I like the way the image depicts a typically british street and then a comical composition of characters related to the album title. The image reflects the music of the band quite well but theen the typography is a little confusing. By itelf the curved typogrpahy and left-alignment is aesthetically appealing but to me it doesn't relate at all to the rawness of the band's music which has been desribed as having comic lyrics, brash punk with a self-effacing, British melancholy. It seems a shame becuase as separate entities the visual components are great but as an album cover it doesn't truely represent the type of music the band make. On the other hand, it could be argued that the typography compliments the image because of its contrasting style. However, I am not yet convinced.

Alberto Seveso

www.recycledarea.co.uk

After looking at the work of Neil Deurden I found a Blog of Michelle Almond's about Alberto Seveso's work. It is really similar to Deurden's illustrative work but takes it one step further by allowing the illustration to flow and dictate what parts of the female figure are revealed and what parts are left forthe imagination to 'draw'.

What I love about the above images is the way the illustrative shapes curve and mimic the shape of the human form and almost latch around the features of the model's face. The work creates a very delicate and femenine feel but at the same time images like the first one can still suggest a vibrance and playfulness which I admire and would lend itself well to animation.