Rummaging through old Vimeo Staff Picks during some downtime this morning, I came across this beautiful short. Miguel de Olaso, (aka Macgregor), is a Spanish filmmaker who typically specializes in high-speed racing filmography, commercials and short-films.
He has a knack for the unique camera movements and well-paced storytelling. I have a deep fascination and love for locomotives and foreign lands — so naturally this film was an absolute treat for the eyes.
Despite being rich in natural resources such as iron, gold and copper, Mauritania maintains a severely depressed GDP. Their primary transportation network is a single railway that pretty much dissects their country (across a portion of the Sahara that borders several other countries). In many ways, Mauritania’s economic future seems dim. But in other respects, it represents the tenacity of a growing, natural resource-rich nation and their relationship with their lifeline — The Mauritania Railway.
You can read more about the making of this short, here. Absolutely nuts. Enjoy!
There is an overwhelming sensation of solitude that overcomes you when you peer deep into the ocean from a solemn place. It’s soothing to ponder life’s mysteries by the seashore during a calm season. I’d venture to say there are more merits to visiting a beach in the offseason as well, devoid of visitors would make for a compelling place to think. I recommend it to anyone seeking solace or contemplation.
Gong Dong, the founder of Vector Architects designed an incredible library marvel that sits just above the northeastern shoreline of Nandaihe in Qinhuangdao, China. It’s a quickly growing prefecture-level port city (meaning it’s not as large as a sprawling province and ranks above county administrative status). We can expect more architectural marvels to be built here as the city continues to grow.
The film below illustrates the architectural vision for the library (there are English subtitles available). In the film, Dong states he was initially inspired by a print of an Andrew Wyeth painting, an American artist who regularly explores solitude and nature (among other complex themes).
Wyeth’s career began as a realist, and he was later influenced by impressionistic works. He considered himself to be an abstractionist, which is apt, considering his dreamlike scenes and ethereal intimacy with the land and sea. His works often leave you feeling like you’re witnessing a simulation. There’s certain spiritual relationship with the unspoken in his paintings — captivating the emotion of the solitary subject.
Elliot Lim is a freelance director, designer, and animator based in the Bay Area. Elliot has a wide and varied resumé of work (some notables include HBO, FX, AT&T, and Jarritos).
While jumping around a bit on Vimeo this morning, I found some of his handiwork. This short in particular was completed for Greenpeace was absolutely astounding. Lim has a beautiful hand in illustration styles, motion, and direction. Really top-notch stuff. Enjoy.
The entire process of breaking a story and getting it to print is just bonkers. It’s hard to fathom making such deadlines today, let alone 40 years ago.
Over the July 4th weekend of 1978, the New York Times switched from a Linotype typesetting process to phototypesetting (or cold-typesetting). Filmmakers Carl Schlesinger and David Loeb Weiss were there to document the end of an era for the historic paper. Amidst a still-looming print deadline, and rigid schedule to switch to an entirely modern process the next day — the entire process feels like total anarchy. With minutes to spare, they make the deadline.
As for the mystical etaoin shrdlu, it’s a non-sensical phrase generated by the typesetter, running their fingers vertically along the Lintotype keys. It was used as a signal to editors that a known mistake was made by the operator. Because operations had to move quickly, it was common to see etaoin shrdlu make it into products such as this one from a 1903 edition of The New York Times.
From the film’s description:
A film created by Carl Schlesinger and David Loeb Weiss documenting the last day of hot metal typesetting at The New York Times. This film shows the entire newspaper production process from hot-metal typesetting to creating stereo moulds to high-speed press operation. At the end of the film, the new typesetting and photographic production process is shown in contrast to the old ways.
There are interviews with workers at NYT that are for and against the new technology. In fact, one typesetter is retiring on this final day as he does not want to learn the new process and technology.
This is the first time the film has ever been available in HD from the original 16mm master film.
See more printing, journalism, and typographic-related films at: printingfilms.com
I have so much respect for these hot metal typesetters, editors, and journalists. This was a tough-as-nails job. They crafted an entire process around the machine’s unforgiving mechanical problems to ensure a daily paper was possible.
It’s really something to behold. The Linotype was a marvelous (and very dangerous machine) feat of mechanical engineering but by the late 1970’s it was time to say goodbye as the digital age was upon us. We’ve come a long way.
I’ve been a New Yorker for about 2 years now, and while I’ve barely scratched the surface exploring this town — it is most certainly replete with annoyance, anxiety, humor, mystery, romance and among other things, meditation. The geography of sounds here are boundless and seemingly amorphous from week-to-week.
Commercial and Music Video Director Menzkie , shot this short in 2014 and I’ve honestly been looking for a film that communicates and describes what it feels like living here. I think this is it. It’s an old Staff Pick, but I thought it was worth re-sharing.
I love the sound design. It is pretty apparent it’s a mix of recordings and SFX. But it totally captivated me. Good stuff.
We’ve had so many huge moments in history captured by it. The moon landing, the Challenger Disaster, OKGO’s Treadmill Music Video, and of course 9/11. Which in its own right was of huge historical significance — it was probably the most-watched event in history thanks to the web. So many servers melted that day serving live-video to hundreds of millions of people across the globe, check out the March 2018 episode of The Talk Show and you’ll get a better sense of what I mean.
So let’s dive into this news. Instagram (or should I say Facebook?) is taking a gamble on long-form video. There’s been no shortage of contenders, from Beme to Portal to the more well-known, You’veTube and of course Vimeo.
IGTV is different in a few ways. First, it’s built for how you actually use your phone, so videos are full screen and vertical. Also, unlike on Instagram, videos aren’t limited to one minute. Instead, each video can be up to an hour long.
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Also like TV, IGTV has channels. But, in IGTV, the creators are the channels. When you follow a creator on Instagram, their IGTV channel will show up for you to watch. Anyone can be a creator — you can upload your own IGTV videos in the app or on the web to start your own channel.
I don’t think this is a risky move at all, nor a creative one from Instagram. But, everything the team at Instagram has done in the past 5 years has been top-rate. Their engineers are smart and calculated and know how to scale a product with such finesse, it really is incredible to behold. I’m actually a little shocked they didn’t launch with 2 or 3-hour video capability.
That being said, Instagram is getting into long-form video hosting, not because they want to but because they have to. For one, if they don’t compete, Instagram loses traffic to You’veTube. They want to change that. For two, it’s pretty evident people are re-posting content on Instagram. It’s annoying, it’s not the original content, and no one like being phished for likes.
I think IGTV presents an interesting value for the Instagram product. It’s the same reason You’veTube introduced You’veTube Music. It’s all about directing audiences to the proper product for use. Without You’veTube Music, regular You’veTube videos would be getting wildly popular plays while the original music creators would be losing out on the metrics. I suppose there are too many slime videos on Instagram, perhaps there will be a slime video channel on IGTV? Fingers-crossed there is because I’m getting sick of seeing all the weird content on the Explore tab.
Food for thought from Marques Brownlee:
Thoughts on IGTV: Competition makes everyone better. So hell yes, I will be on IGTV.
Vertical videos are… a challenge. I’ve played with the app briefly, and it’s different but not awful
But Insta just crossed a billion active users, we’d be silly to ignore a platform like that
Stu Maschwitz is an absolute madman. He’s a veteran filmmaker, photographer, ex-Industrial Light & Magic, and co-founder of the now-defunct effects studio The Orphanage. He’s currently the Chief Creative Officer of Red Giant, video editing and effects software I use regularly. You’ve’re probably familiar with his work.
In short, Tank is an animated short film… made entirely in After Effects. It’s nuts. Make sure to watch the entire film and the behind-the-scenes. It’s a work of fucking art, and you can tell Stu really sunk his heart into this film. It’s absolutely wonderful.
Sentimentality is a tricky thing. For those of us who possess it, experiencing “all the feels” can provide a deep well of emotion to draw from, enhancing our response to — or remembrance of — any given person, place or thing. However, like any well, it’s deep, dark and you can fall down it if you’re not careful. When it comes to our physical creations and possessions, sentimentality means the difference between tossing something in the waste bin and keeping it on a bookshelf for time eternal. Take an inanimate object that has been imbued with a life and identity of its own, like a stuffed animal, and you can begin to understand how one starts down the path of becoming a hoarder. Ainslie Henderson is to sentimentalists what Willy Wonka is to chocoholics. Since releasing his BAFTA-nominated directorial debut, “I Am Tom Moody” in 2012, Henderson has established himself as one of today’s preeminent stop-motion animators, lauded for his uncanny ability to breathe life into any manner of puppet, anthropomorphic or not. Henderson’s newest film, “Stems,” is an empathic ode to the artist’s puppets and today’s Staff Pick Premiere.
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Despite the final film’s modest runtime, production took the better part of six months, a testament to the painstaking work inherent to stop-motion and central to Henderson’s ability to bring his characters to life. “I take my time,” says Henderson, who is then quick to point out that the design of the puppets is every bit as important as the way in which they’re ultimately animated. “They should have a kind of ‘aliveness’ even before they move, that way you don’t have to do terribly much in the animating to bring them to life.” When asked if he ever gets attached to his creations, Henderson’s response is perhaps unsurprising: “I cherish them. Even the ugly, or half-finished ones get a place on the shelf in my studio. They’re like this weird, constantly growing little family who stare out at me from the windowsill as I’m working.”
Wonderful camerawork, stop-motion and sound design.
Amazing storytelling. Tinder may get a lot of flack, but at least it didn’t violate the privacy of millions of people. I like Tinder, and I still think it’s vastly undervalued. I also believe the next prevailing Social Network empire will not be Facebook — it will be the Match Group.
These are cool. Simple concepts, fast iteration. These are really really effective. I’d like to see local news reporting pickup on these kinds of graphics. Those whimsical non-representational, 3D texturized motion graphics we’re familiar with in local news are just so shitty.
A lovely, light-hearted piece from Giant Ant. A great spot, for a great cause. As if battling cancer isn’t hard enough, imagine being a kid with a cancer diagnosis. If you want to help the IFS, donate your imaginary friends here
