Special Problems

I looked into Special Problems after finding the video I previously posted about. The work they produce is gorgeous. Below are two music video's I pulled from their website.

The Naked and Famous — Young Blood from Special Problems on Vimeo.

Jonathan Boulet - A Community Service Announcement from Special Problems on Vimeo.

I included these for both the cinematography, and for the effects within them. I love the mood and tone of both projects. Last but not least, their showreel.

Showreel from Special Problems on Vimeo.

I can't wait to get to grips with after effects properly so I can start making little mash ups and stuff.

Tame Impala - Half Full Glass of Wine

Jools if you read this, can we please learn how to do crazy stuff like this next year?

Tame Impala - Half Full Glass of Wine from Special Problems on Vimeo.

Please :D

Huck magazine

I found out about this competition which HUCK magazine is running on this blog which I highly recommend it's got absolutely loads on it. The magazine is running a competition to recreate the cover and then send in a photograph to be judged.

Advertising is becoming more interactive by the day, I'd probably buy this magazine that I only heard of 5 minutes ago cause it's got a gimmick to it. A prime example of interactive adverts is the iTunes App store, you can download games promoting films, cartoons, clothes shops. Even my mum's started shopping at Tesco cause she can do it on her phone throughout the day as she thinks of stuff and then buy it when she wants. I never wanted to admit it but I really want an iPad now cause of the amount of stuff available, my poor little iPod touch just doesn't cut it any more. Convenience is such a big factor in peoples lives and I'm only just starting to realise just how much.

OK Go

Always manage to pull something insane out of the bag.

YouTube Play

Either I've been hiding under a rock or looking in the wrong places but somehow I only just found out about Youtube Play yesterday. It's a collaboration between Youtube and the Guggenheim Museum, and it looks quite interesting. Currently working my way through them, and I'm going to post some of my favourites later. Love the concept already though.

1 -

I love the concept of this short. Two strangers share a dream in which they meet. The animation isn't particularly my cup of tea, but I can't knock it. It suits the story very well.

2-

This video is a bit of a home truth, especially in our generation just how much we are constantly plugged in to social networking sites. I personally feel the need to unplug quite regularly especially with the recent popularity of location trackers like facebook places and foursquare. I don't see the attraction at all and find it quite creepy that you'd want to know where people are 24/7 if anyone actually wanted to know they could ask you what you were doing that day face to face. Creepy.

The more I watch these the more I feel I've seen them a thousand time before and I'm bored. Ok as soon as I finished that sentence I found this

3-

Really well directed, and such a simple idea. I watched it a few times and liked it more and more.

4-

This is my favourite so far, a 14 year old kid broke into John Lennons dressing room and interviewed him. It's actually amazing and I could listen to it over and over again. Shamefully I don't think I could name a Beatles song I might just have to listen to them now, just cause this is so cool.

Glamour Kills, apparently

Recently discovered the work of Mark Zimmerman, illustrator/photographer general artsy person. Who's designed the advertising campaign for brand Glamour Kills. There's a few nice tee's on there although its a US company and don't deliver outside the UK. Anyway the reason I'm posting them is their adverts. They have specific adverts for different magazines. The following two were designed for Nylon.

 

This one was created for Transworld Skateboarding, I like how there's consistency in the tagline "create" enough so the brand would be recognizable.

 

 And some random things I found on his blog which were quite nice.

Etienne De Crecy

Oh my god. Someone tell me why I don't live in Paris?

Just discovered possibly the most amazing set design. Watch the above and tell me that would not blow your mind on a night out? And here's more of the same. Just because.

Paris social club, otherwise known as perfection in night club form? I need to be there. Next summer I'm determined to make this happen. Or even maybe easter, christmas? Whatever I don't care it is my mission to go.

Listening to

I love music that has no proper instruments it seems.

The Sandpit

The Sandpit from Sam O'Hare on Vimeo.

A day in the life of New York City, in miniature.

Winner: Prix Ars Electronica Award of Distinction 2010

Original Music: composed by Human (http://www.humanworldwide.com), co-written by Rosi Golan and Alex Wong.

Please view in HD and full screen for best effect. For a description of the shoot, camera, lenses and workflow, please see here: http://bit.ly/aFmaPZ

Love it

Completely love the fact that Annie Mac wore a tee that I've got to DJ at Creamfields. Oh me and Annie, two peas in a pod.

The tee is by brand BAKE. All done at home by this dude. Good stuff.

Listening to

Kanye West, I've missed you ♥

Lie-Ins and Tigers (More specifically Russell Weekes)

Lie-ins and Tigers is a Manchester based design collective. I've featured them as a whole as they have some lovely illustration and photography on their website.

But mostly I'm intrigued by one of their members, Russell Weekes. This video for musician Adrian Smith was directed by Russell, and uses stop motion in so many different ways, live action and with props too. I wish I had known about this this time last year for my stop motion project at uni.

The video below tells the sad story of Edward, and looks to be a continuation of the above, and also an extended show reel. I find it interesting the formats he uses to inject comedy into his work, the sandwich board being my favourite example of this in the clip.

In my search for more information I got in touch with Russell and he forwarded me a much more recent piece of work.

Night Before Mutiny from Serafina Steer on Vimeo.
Night Before Mutiny from Serafina's 5 track E.P. 'Bloody Hell'.
Out 13th September 2010 on Stolen Recordings.
Video directed by Russell Weekes.

Again using stop motion and story telling. He really excels in creating an unusually, entertaining piece.

Stuff etc.

I'm actually so glad I keep this blog up to date, looking back on it its mad to see how much I've changed over the year. Some up to date stuff that I'm feeling at the moment. (by up to date, I mean that I've just discovered)

1. New Order/Joy Division.
Ok well I've wrote about Joy Division and their artwork before on here but I went to an exhibition a few weeks ago and there was tonnes (tons?) of stuff about both bands, the design, the whole Madchester scene and it just got me excited. I wish there were more bands these days who had the kind of presentation these do. Factory records needs to relive its glory days, please? Also loving the Hacienda music, acid house and me? Who woulda thunk it.

(OMG bad nineties graphics. LOVE IT!)

2. Gil Elvgren (and LA Ink I suppose)
I've always loved drawing and for some reason I find it easier to draw women, I don't however find it easy to draw women like Gil Elvgren. I actually feel ashamed that I never heard of him until today as I love pin up art. And also where I discovered him, LA Ink, which I'm also quite ashamed of that I'd never heard of until a day or two ago. It's kind of made me want a tattoo too, which I have always pretty much swore to this day I would never get cause I didn't like them. But I'm starting to turn. Scary stuff.

 

 I'm going to end up looking like this.

Andy Martin

Dry Fish from Andy Martin on Vimeo.

This clip is alot more than it seems when you first watch it. I came across the blog of Andy Martin, the creator of the piece. On it he's wrote about the whole creative process which went into it. He began by sketching out different characters and expressions as an experiment but then began developing it more. You can see some of the sketches below.

In the blog he also talks about his process, which consists of using photoshop to edit the sketches and then using after effects to sequence them. I find it really interesting to find out how people work, sometimes its more helpful than reading a step by step tutorial, it gives you the insight you need without telling you what to create. You can read the full write up here.

Hurts

HURTS WONDERFUL LIFE from water71 on Vimeo.

HURTS WONDERFUL LIFE,MANCHESTER 2010

HURTS - Wonderful Life from CO on Vimeo.

HURTS - Wonderful Life

Hurts are my new love. I first saw them on a late night channel 4 music programme and immediately thought "What am I watching? This is NOT the 80's." and dismissed them. But I've finally come to accept the 80's are back in a big, bad way and that I should just get used to it. The music videos above are for the same song, Wonderful Life. One being a low budget, simple idea, the second showing just how these simple ideas can be transformed into something completely different. The original video can be a bit hard to bear at times, simply for the bad dancing. This does make up the entirety of the video so by the end you get used to it. I do like that the woman looks awkward. It creates an uneasiness, and with the subject of the song it links well. I also like the close ups and I feel as if they add to the melancholic atmosphere. The revised version is pretty much the same deal as the original with more money thrown at it than you can shake a stick at. I do like that they give a few nods to the original in it, and I don't really want to admit it but I do prefer the new one simply for the fact its so polished and still captures the atmosphere the original did, and also for the fact that I just think of Addicted to Love every time I watch it.

They've also had some clever marketing go into them. Using intriguing story telling on Spotify, you search for random codes (wikipedia tells me the first code is "a5m4" for those interested.) This begins a story in which you are asked to make choices and you get different results. All dropping in names of the songs on the album. It's a clever way of bringing in a new audience. I remember being a kid and reading books with a similar idea, "turn to page 54 if you want to turn left or 21 if you want to go right." so even though I didn't complete the story, it gave me a trip down memory lane, which lets face it that's what the band is all about.

Denise Nestor

I just bought a new sketchbook and I don't want to put anything crap in it (how gay) anyway while looking for some decent stuff to inspire me I came across Dublin (wooo!) artist, Denise Nestor. Her works sooo nice, simple work which captures depth and likeness. One day I want to be able to draw like this, but til then I'll just stick to people with eyes too big for their heads and odd proportions.

Various photographs

Don't know why but I seem to have developed a semi-love for photography. I say semi cause I don't know anything about it but flicking through my little folder of crap I've noticed lots of photo's cropping up. Most are by unknown artists as far as I'm aware.