As I was writing to my wife, telling her about the existence of Polish director Zbigniew Rybczyński’s musical live-action piece, “The Orchestra,” bemoaning the fact that I’ve not found a video copy more than 360 pixels, here I found one that puports to be 720p. It’s not, of course, merely the 360p video artificially enlarged…
On May 15, 1961, Melvin Glover, aka Melle Mel, was born in the Bronx, NYC. After a brief stint as a B-boy break dancer, Mel took up the mic, as the back spin had become popular, a move the lanky Mel couldn’t do. At that time DJs were popular, but let’s not get it twisted,…
I’m no musician, nor am I a formally trained music historian. I don’t know the history of Rock and Roll, because, frankly, until the turn of the 21st century, I never liked it much. I used to deejay at parties and dances, and if you want to know something about Funk music or Reggae, I’m…
More often that people realize, song lyrics aren’t just brief works of fiction. Inspiration is all around us, every day, and songwriters pull from real life to tell their stories and wrap them in musical harmonies. Songstress Erykah Badu, in a recent interview with Rap Radar’s Brian “B.Dot” Miller, disclosed one such story, that of…
This short is a brilliant little piece of animation from Russian filmmakers Anna Budanova, Mikhail Dvoryankin, and Anna Krizkaia. The theme shows how a small, childhood Wound, if left unchecked, can continue to grow. Awards: Special Jury Award International Animation Film Festival Annecy 2013 France The prize for the best animation Suzdal 2013 Best animation…
“Love Japan” is a four-minute, visual love story about Japan. Visually stunning and exceptionally edited, it takes you through Japan’s urban, natural, and human life, with a distinctly personal touch. You’ll see snippets from Tokyo, Hiroshima, and bathing snow monkeys, as well as intimate moments from a traveler’s life. Part street video, part travelogue, and…
At their basest elements, animation should evoke an emotional response of some sort before they can claim to be successful. Here are a couple of animation pieces that elicit strong, if different, emotional responses. The first is “Geist,” from Giant Animation Studios. In it, a shipwrecked fisherman is led to a dark secret. The second…
Here is a sweet fairy tale (for adults) about two clocks for whom time is always relative. It is called “Between Times” and is produced by the wife and husband team Ru Kuwahata and Max Porter (tinyinventions.com). A second, behind-the-scenes film on the animation duo follows. Enjoy. Behind the Scenes: the story of Tiny Inventions…
Here’s a nice video showing the process by which animators put together the Simpsons Couch Gag in the style of famed artist Sylvain Chomet. For completeness, the final product is below.
First, a sweet, colorful video entitled I’m a Bat, produced as a 4th-year project at California Institute of the Arts by Lauren Adassovsky. The message here is “Know who you are.” The second video, while also an old-school “drawn” animation (as opposed to stop-action or CGI) is a film titled The Chase in the Ghost…
Raw, Naked Art 