Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
April 9th, 2013 | Filed under: Design, Film and Video, Portfolio | Add a Comment »
Words cannot express how much I love Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. So I made this poster instead.
Star Wars As Directed By People Other Than George Lucas: A Field Guide
October 31st, 2012 | Filed under: Film and Video, Sketchbook | Add a Comment »
Olly Moss Art Show
October 19th, 2012 | Filed under: Artists, Film and Video | Add a Comment »A fantastic show theme, executed flawlessly by the amazing Olly Moss.
The truth-telling power of fairy-tale
September 9th, 2012 | Filed under: Art Theory, Film and Video | Add a Comment »(First of all, if you don’t know about Gobelins, consider this an introduction. Gobelins, reader, reader, Gobelins — a French animation school that’s putting out some of the most consistently beautiful and inspiring short films I’ve seen over the past few years.)
Now, as to the film above — if I told you, in facts, figures, and real-world stories, about the relationship between Germany and the rest of Europe between WWI and WWII, it would be interesting, even revealing. But to see the subject tackled in this abstract, magical way, illuminates the feeling of what happened in a way that no history textbook could ever hope to achieve.
This is what fiction and fairy-tales can do. They take real things and re-frame them so that we can understand them in a de-familiarized context. And, in doing so, they tear at and rebuild the deep places of our souls.
For want of a hero, 2012 box office revenue was lost
September 6th, 2012 | Filed under: Art Theory, Film and Video, Notes | Add a Comment »I recently heard it argued that movie attendance is down not only because of the economy, but because of the absence of admirable heroes in film. Then I saw Screen Rant’s story about how ticket sales are the lowest they’ve been since tracking started in 1993.
The only saving graces for the box office, Screen Rant reports, were Hunger Games, The Avengers, and The Dark Knight Rises. All movies with admirable (if flawed) heroes taking a stand for people they cared about.
Anecdotally, I have wanted to take my rockstar of a wife out to the movies on a couple of occasions, only to be disappointed by reviewing what’s out and discovering that there’s no homerun fare available … only a litany of mindlessness, vulgarity, horror, and innocuous…ness. (Innocuousity?)
What do you think … does the “no heroes” argument carry water, or is declining theater attendance unrelated to this particular social trend?