Thursday, April 28, 2011

Exporting Movie Premieres: Raymond VS Everything Must Go

Saw two movie premieres over the past two nights and Exporting Raymond is definitely the better of the two films.

It was shown at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center and shows what happens when you try to export an American sitcom, the wildly popular Everybody Loves Raymond to Russia. This was fascinating and Philip Rosenthal was there for a Q&A afterwards with Richard Peña so we really got to hear more about the process. Loved how they showed the casting difficulties in getting the right "Raymond" character and how hard it was to translate different comic beats.  The films at the Film Society of Lincoln 

Everything Must Go on the flip-side was good and definitely shows Will Ferrell in a little more of a serious role. I wouldn't suggest seeing the trailer as they had to comb the movie for every single funny bit so it's a spoiler.  The Hollywood star showed at the premiere at the TriBeCa Film festival and seems good natured enough to want to work with a first time director like Dan Rush.  While I liked the film, it was predictable down to knowing exactly how the film would end. It's open ended which I think is positive and has a strong supporting role for Rebecca Hall, but I was a little bit disappointed. Know Ferrell has it in him to do more serious roles, but this just falls short. 

Seeing films at the Film Society at Lincoln Center seem to be more satisfying these days.

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Tuesday, April 26, 2011

A Group of Conflict Photographers Runs Out of Luck

Chris Hondros/Getty Images

A Libyan rebel, photographed by Chris Hondros.

Read this in the NY Times this Sunday. Very sad as these photographers have been so helpful in helping us see these conflicts through their exceptional photography. Liked that they are showing their work on their multimedia page too. Tim Hetherington was the director of the excellent documentary film, Restrepo, and since I just showed some clips to my students at CUNY recently, his work resonates.

Have a friend who is a photo editor at Newsweek and she counted him as a good friend. Said he would be missed.

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Sunday, April 24, 2011

Canon Stories: CDLC Speaks With Top Pros at NAB 2011

Canon Stories: CDLC Speaks With Top Pros at NAB 2011

April 13, 2011

We plunged in almost a year ago in getting a Canon Rebel T2i, loved it but needed more versatility with the screen so just got a Canon 60D and I am in love all over again. Really liked what Vincent Laforet had to say here about being creative and maintaining a small camera package. Interested to see that footage he mentions by strapping one of these cameras (Canon 5D with modifications) onto a bicycle. Cool.

Funny, but couldn't share the video file with my blog so you will have to click on the link below to watch the video. LAME CANON. Shame on you for not sharing properly.

via learn.usa.canon.com

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Canon Stories: CDLC Speaks With Top Pros at NAB 2011

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We plunged in almost a year ago in getting a Canon DSLR Rebel T2i, loved it but needed more versatility with the screen so just got a Canon 60D and I am in love all over again. Really liked what Vincent Laforet had to say here about being creative and maintaining a small camera package. Interested to see that footage he mentions by strapping one of these cameras (Canon 5D with modifications) onto a bicycle. Cool.

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Saturday, April 23, 2011

Electric cars: the mythbuster | Electric vision | guardian.co.uk

Obviously, I would love to buy an electric car someday but the only public charging station I ever saw was in downtown Fairfax, CA near the town community center. Liked this interactive guide as it gave good info in a nice simple package. Liked the breakdown and easy navigation too. My 1994 Toyota Camry is still seeming to be going "strong", but it would be nice someday to own a new car......

Loved the documentary film I saw a few years ago about the failed Chevy Volt, called Who Killed the Electric Car (2006) but know that this kind of vehicle could be an alternative if enough people bought into the idea.

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Thursday, April 21, 2011

Stick em Up (Pivot Stick Figures animation)

This is old, but I love it anyway. Love the channel fuzz..

Enjoy.

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Wednesday, April 20, 2011

AAA presents - Safe Seats 4 Kids

Somehow I came upon this video and I'm glad that I watched it. Was thinking of upgrading Natalie's car-seat and since she is still under 40 lbs, I know now to keep her where she's at. The power of video in a colorful, fun package. Watch it as you may be taking undue risks with your kid's car safety.

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Sunday, April 17, 2011

Can Teetering Toddlers Find Balance in Yoga?

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My friend Shari has been getting some great press lately about Karma Kids Yoga that she operates in the Village. We do yoga here with both of our kids and find that taking deep breaths helps the kids deal with disappointments and anger. I love the pull of Karma Kids for parents in other parts of the city too........

Go Shari!!!

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Friday, April 15, 2011

The Kill Team | Rolling Stone Politics

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I was telling my students at CUNY about this video this week and was reminded that it ties into this concept I've been thinking about a lot concerning the convergence between video communication and ethics. Was inspired by the April 6th Youth Movement in Cairo (see April 1, 2011) and how they harnessed the power of social networking by showing video of Cairo's security police and their practice of torturing its citizens. By showing video online, and essentially broadcasting bad behavior, they turned it's youth into a powerful force. A few weeks later, I was disgusted by this story from Rolling Stone about a group of American soldiers, The Kill Team, who edited a little music video of killing Taliban fighters in Afghanistan, and honestly, couldn't even watch all of the video as it was so grotesque. Reminded me of watching Full Metal Jacket by Stanley Kubrick, a fabulous anti-war film in that it shows the madness that soldiers must come face to face with in handling the emotional atrocities of partaking in hand to hand combat with the enemy.
There is a scene in Full Metal Jacket where a soldier invites a photographer to take a picture of him with his "bro", a dead Viet-Cong who was sitting next to him with his hat pulled down over his eyes. The moment when he pulls that hat away and we see the deathly pallor of this man, a human, sitting next to this guy, who is red and ruddy in the cheek, is sickening as we can see that all of their human-ness is sucked out of them while in war. There is no way to think about your fellow-man, when you have to kill him or be killed upon the battle field. The only people that matter are your buddies, who help keep you alive.
Wow, what an amazing scene from a fictional film, but something that looks like reality. My class this week was focused on War On Film. We looked at scenes from films like Born on the 4th of July and Full Metal Jacket, and then looked at documentary films like Restrepo and Frontline TV documentaries and ended with this sickening footage that the Kill Team came up with. I didn't show them the footage broadcast on Rolling Stone's site, but just spoke about it. It's a crazy mixed up world out there, especially in war, but hopefully, people can see the ethical conundrum in using video for "sport". It hurts our mission when people use it in this way. Video's power is undeniable, but the Kill Team's behavior is untenable.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Anatomy of a Scene: 'Hanna' - Video Library - The New York Times

This looks cool. I think I want to see Hanna this weekend. Not only, have I been reading about this film for months, but I am ready for an action film on the big screen. This video was fascinating as he is showing how this scene came together without applying special effects. Like the fact that it is all timed out with the camera doing it's "hero shot" around her. So many directors do these things in post-production these days that it's nice to see it all done by hand.

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Wednesday, April 13, 2011

LaBlogotheque's Channel: Buck 65 Walking on a Pier in Paris

Love this. Nice with the voices and their steps and it sounds so good. Like her floppy hat and the closeups on their faces. These guys are 'shooting gods' in my opinion. Want to be able to hold as steady and capture this couple as they walk along so expertly. Never heard of this band before today, but I will keep listening. The bridge stuff is cool too, particularly with the guy walking on top of it.

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Monday, April 11, 2011

News Desk: Video: On Coming to America : The New Yorker

These three videos to focus on The New Yorker's Journey's Issue are interesting. Like how they are super short and sweet and shot with a digital SLR camera. Enjoy seeing the dollhouse, the views from a Brooklyn roof and the shots of walking on Riverside Drive. I was born in NYC, and my parents lived at 111th Street and Riverside Drive. Still remember sitting in a baby seat on my parents bicycles taking rides along the edge of the park on hot summer nights.

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Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Arab spring: an interactive timeline of Middle East protests | World news | guardian.co.uk

This is a really cool interactive guide to understanding the early winter to present events taking place in the Middle East. Like the nifty slider on the top where you can go to any date. Also, I like the visuals as the timeline unfurls forward in time. Love the work the Guardian does on this stuff as it makes it so easy to understand for us visual people out there.

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Monday, April 4, 2011

Captured by Qaddafi's Forces - Video Library - The New York Times

I was listening to these four NY Times journalists tonight on the radio and this is some compelling video. Photographer Lynsey Addario spoke about how shocking it was to be punched in the face by her captors while being blindfolded and it's extremely powerful. They were captured two weeks ago and their insight can help us understand some of the real-life situations inside Libya at the moment.

Compelling video to get you inside the stories of these four jounralistys.

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Sunday, April 3, 2011

Burberry Acoustic

This is fascinating. I love the french music busking site, La Blogotheque and here Burburry is doing the same thing in their Burburry Acoustic section of their lovely website. I like their site because they use a lot of video and it launches and seems to play seemlessly.

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Friday, April 1, 2011

Revolution in Cairo - Video | FRONTLINE | PBS

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This was a very compelling documentary about the recent events in Egypt. I was mostly focused on the convergence between social media and video and how the April 6th Youth Movement was ready and waiting for an opportunity to strike. It took more than 3 years to prepare and it showed in their focus and dedication to the cause. Watch the full program online to see but beware there is some extremely graphic imagery that shows the atrocities the Security Police in Egypt were using on its citizens. Online video was the key in turning the youth movement into a force to be reckoned with and access to it was the important thing. Fascinating to learn about this group led by Ahmed Maher and how they mobilized by using Facebook and sharing these moments caught on videotape to convince young people in Egypt that they needed to rise up. When the protests in Tunisia happened, this group saw their chance. This group studied non-violent tactics from Serbia and South Africa to gain support. By making the government look bad, that prompted others around the world to voice their disgust. This video tells this story so well, anyone interested in this monumental change in the region should watch to learn more. It also highlighted the organization tactics from the Muslim Brotherhood which aided the movement.

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