» Cultural democracy or mediocrity? PressPausePlay Full Movie Online

In February I posted this:

"PressPausePlay, a film about fear, hope and digital culture". The digital revolution of the last decade has unleashed creativity and talent of people in an unprecedented way, unleashing unlimited creative opportunities. But does democratized culture mean better art, film, music and literature or is true talent instead flooded and drowned in the vast digital ocean of mass culture? Is it cultural democracy or mediocrity? This is the question addressed by PressPausePlay, a documentary film containing interviews with influential creators of the digital era. To name a few interviewees, Ted Schilowitz, founder, Red Digital Cinema Camera Company, Sean Parker, co-founder of Napster, Scott Belsky, CEO & founder, Behance. The film was shot globally between August 2009 – January 2011, covering more than 150 hours of interview footage with international creatives and thinkers - representing the state of digitized culture today.

Now it's out, you can download it from their website, full HD.

» Iain Macarthur

Illustrations by Iain Macarthur, UK.

» Martin Allais, Pilot Evolution

I tried to find more info about Martin Allais but there is no much data about him in his site or in the web, it's not clear if he is from Spain or Venezuela, or where did he study, but he is definitely a good director. He is represented by Boolab. 

This is a campaign promoting Pilot brand’s latest models, the Frixion, whose main feature is that it lets you both write and erase.

» Google's Online Magazine, Think Quarterly

Without any grand announcements, Google has launched it’s own online magazine, Think Quarterly. The first quarterly issue looks clean and well put together. The internet based reader neatly displays the magazine in a simulated magazine format, with pages that appear to turn. Quarterly remains firmly aimed at Google's partners and advertisers. Leaned towards info graphics and large photos makes the magazine as interesting to look at as to read. One highlight is the table of contents which cleverly guides readers through the pages in standard linear fashion or on an exploratory path based on how articles relate to one another. The articles themselves are prominently thought pieces centering around business and technology topics, with contributions from a variety of freelance writers and contributors.

"At Google, we often think that speed is the forgotten ‘killer application’ – the ingredient that can differentiate winners from the rest," Matt Brittin, Google’s managing director of U.K. and Ireland operations states in Think Quarterly‘s introduction. "We know that the faster we deliver results, the more useful people find our service. But in a world of accelerating change, we all need time to reflect. Think Quarterly is a breathing space in a busy world. It’s a place to take time out and consider what’s happening and why it matters".

» Dan Mountford

Illustration, design and photography by Dan Mountford, UK.

» The Animation Workshop, Mighty Antlers

Mighty Antlers is a bachelor film project from The Animation Workshop, a school in Denmark, with strong reputation due to the top education they provide for the international industry. This short film was created by Sune Reinhardt, Mikael Ilnæs, Michael L. Fonsholt and Jouko Keskitalo. The story is great and the images are carefully treated; lighting, textures, characters, animation, environment, etc., are all packed and styled together, awesome job from this students. There is a making off here.

» CRCR

This video named "Todor & Petru" is the unofficial music video for The Thunderclaps "Judgment Day". It was made by Gobelins students Remi Bastie, Nicolas Dehghani, Jonathan Djob Nkondo, Nicolas Pegon and Jérémy Pires during an internship at Paris based WIZZ. They are known as CRCR, it's not clear if they are some kind of collective or studio but together they also created the "Jesus2000" animation 2 years ago, and the opening for the 2010 Annecy animation festival named "Junkspace". I was quite impressed with the combination of drawn animation and live action. It was done in such a way so that the piece has a cinematic style while retaining the organic and expressive qualities of drawn animation. It’s a worthwhile combo experiment. 

» NOVA documentary, 75min online premiere

A documentary film on new art and the young artists behind it. Directed by Isaac Niemand, and produced by Rojo, an independent creative organization, founded in 2001 by David Quiles Guilló, in collaboration with BossaNovaFilms, it was all filmed at Nova Contemporary Culture which happened in July and August 2010, in MIS-Museum of Image and Sound, and SESC Pompeia, in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Starring: Yoshi Sodeoka, Rebecca Ward, Tofer Chin, KRINK, Base V, Yochai Matos, Max Hattler, Lucy McRae, Kit Webster, Jimmy Joe Roche, Flavio Samelo, Matt W Moore, Zeitguised, Mulheres Barbadas, Gustavo Gagliardo aka Defi, Filippo Minelli, Quayola, Javier Longobardo, Renaud Hallée, Mark Jenkins, Ljudbilden & Piloten, Sosaku Miyazaki, Anna Taratiel aka Ovni, Robert Seidel, B. Fleischmann, Koen Delaere, Taras Hrabowsky, Cristopher Cichocki, Yusk Imai, to name a few.

Music by: Bradien, Roll The Dice, Fuck Buttons, to name some.

» Petra Mrzyk & Jean-François Moriceau

Working collaboratively since 1998, France based artists, designers and animators, Petra Mrzyk & Jean-François Moriceau are known for their detailed black and white ink drawings, their work surrounds the absurd, humorous, and even the perverse. With an ironic connection to commercial stuff, comics, and design, they have created their own vision on the contemporary visual culture. In their work, anything is possible and the surreal is their emblem. The have exhibit their work in several solo and collective shows around the world. You can watch some of their art works here. This is their latest music video, Sebastien Tellier´s "Look" clip, it's been a while since this but in case you haven't watched it or haven't heard about them I decided to make this post. I also recommend to watch Air's "Sing Sang Sung" and "don't be light" clips, some clever and detailed pieces. They also created this iphone app in collaboration with Sam Vermette for Recordmakers anniversary, it's free and it's fun.

» The Thomas Beale Cipher by Andrew S. Allen

I watched this film a couple of months ago and I wanted post it immediately but I waited and researched more about the story behind it. The story says that a group of men came across with a treasure while on expedition in New Mexico, and they buried it in Virginia. One of them, named Thomas Beale, left three cipher texts with a friend, who forgets about it for more than 20 years. One day realizing that Thomas is not coming back, he opens the box and tries to solve the ciphers. Being unable to, he passes along the texts to a friend, James Beverly Ward, who cracks one of the three ciphers, but not the one that actually gives the precise location of the treasure. More than a hundred years go by, and no one had been able to solve the remaining two ciphers texts, if it exists, may still be out there, buried in Virginia. Everything now known about the Beale Cipher is based on a single text, published by Ward and submitted to the Library of Congress in 1885. The first cipher text allegedly describes the location of the treasure. The second text, the only one deciphered, explains what the treasure is, and the third supposedly details the names of the people that should get the treasure. Some people say that it´s all a hoax perpetrated by Ward, but the tale of the Beale ciphers, as I found on the web, continues to intrigue codebreakers and treasure hunters. Also, there is a Cheyenne legend dating from around 1820 which tells of gold and silver being taken from the West and buried in Eastern Mountains.

About Andrew S. Allen and the film aesthetics, he has embedded ciphers of his own in the film, there are 16 hidden messages, that´s kind of a interesting thing to do if you are already immerse in this story of mystery and riddles. He used a combination of old school hand drawn design and rotoscoping with fabric and paper textures. The look is simple and elegant, perfect for the story, it won numerous film festival awards. Check out the website here.

» Cultural democracy or mediocrity? PressPausePlay Trailer

"PressPausePlay, a film about fear, hope and digital culture". The digital revolution of the last decade has unleashed creativity and talent of people in an unprecedented way, unleashing unlimited creative opportunities. But does democratized culture mean better art, film, music and literature or is true talent instead flooded and drowned in the vast digital ocean of mass culture? Is it cultural democracy or mediocrity? This is the question addressed by PressPausePlay, a documentary film containing interviews with influential creators of the digital era. To name a few interviewees, Ted Schilowitz, founder, Red Digital Cinema Camera Company, Sean Parker, co-founder of Napster, Scott Belsky, CEO & founder, Behance. The film was shot globally between August 2009 – January 2011, covering more than 150 hours of interview footage with international creatives and thinkers - representing the state of digitized culture today.

» Stefan Nadelman, 2.5d mastery among other things

Stefan Nadelman studied fine arts at Iowa State University in 1994, he began working in New York City as a print graphic designer, he transitioned to web design and then to web animation. In 2000, Stefan's first film, "Latin Alive" was included on the Best of Resfest DVD volume 1. By 2003, Stefan left the world of web-based animation for that of film and television. Shortly after, his next film, "Terminal Bar", won the Jury Prize for short film at the Sundance Film Festival. Among a variety of personal, collaborative, and commercial work, he has directed and animated shorts with Robert Smigel for Saturday Night Live's TV Funhouse, a music video for Menomena's Evil Bee, and the viral mini-epic short film about war called Food Fight. "I Say Fever" is the first video from the Ramona Falls debut album Intuit, under Barsuk Records. It was made beautifully by this talented artist, it has a fever-ish dreamy look and story.