Digital SLR’s: A Filmmaking Gift or a D.I.Y. Curse?
First and foremost, I want to say that this is not a rant or a case against Digital-SLR cameras. I, in fact, find them to be fantastic in many ways. It is more a prognostication of the pitfalls that I foresee them causing in the future Film & Video landscape. When the “SLR shoots 1080P HD video” craze began, I was very skeptical. I was preparing to direct a PSA and my cinematographer said he wanted to shoot on his new Canon EOS 7D. I trust his opinion immensely, but was still concerned. I was planning on shooting with the Sony PMW-EX1, a respectable (if not spectacular) “pro-sumer” digital HD camera (list price $6,200). It only took a few clips of some 7D footage that my colleague »
This is an excerpt from There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2007). 11 adult viewers were shown the video and their eye movements recorded using an Eyelink 1000 (SR Research) infra-red camera-based eyetracker. Each dot represents the center of one viewer’s gaze. The size of each dot represents the length of time they have held fixation.
A fascinating post by Tim Smith, a psychological researcher interested in how viewers watch films can be read here. Here is an excerpt:
The most striking feature of the gaze behaviour when it is animated in this way is the very fast pace at which we shift our eyes around the screen. On average, each fixation is about 300 milliseconds in duration. (A millisecond is a thousandth of a second.) Amazingly, that means that each fixation of the fovea lasts only »
This is the best day of some peoples’ lives. The tiny Dionysian anarchist on my other shoulder is no angel, but I cannot deny that there is something holy in this feeling, that it is one of few human experiences that justifies life—that satisfies, however briefly, our desperate craving for more intensity, for more meaning, for more life from life. Whatever the future holds, there will be disappointment, at best. But there is always disappointment. Today, there is joy.
Democracy in America, The Economist on Mubarak stepping down.
Mubarak steps down
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has stepped down and the vice president has named a military council to run the country’s affairs, state television said on Friday after 18 days of mass protests against his rule. (Photo: Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters)Check out our full visual archive.
Enjoy this Egypt, you’ve damn well earned it.
Alive in Egypt: Eight Days Later
For the last twelve days I’ve been just like everyone else on the internet, glued to the news unfolding in Egypt. The entire Small World News team has been asking each other just what we might be able to do to help the people of Egypt. A few phone calls and constant Skype chatter lead to a lot of good possibilities, but nothing concrete enough to take action on. Until last Sunday, when Brian really came up with something great after seeing the new blog post from Google about their Speak2Tweet service.
Speak2Tweet is a really simple service that allowed anyone in Egypt to call a phone number via the still functional phone system and record a voicemail that would then be posted to the SayNow service as an mp3. This went around the internet being shut down in Egypt and provided »
The most terrifying fact about the universe is not that it is hostile but that it is indifferent; but if we can come to terms with this indifference and accept the challenges of life within the boundaries of death — however mutable man may be able to make them — our existence as a species can have genuine meaning and fulfillment. However vast the darkness, we must supply our own light.
– Stanley Kubrick, 1968
A mother carries her daughter on her shoulders with the word “Masr” or “Egypt” written on her forehead as Egyptians gather in Cairo’s Tahrir Square. (MOHAMMED ABED/AFP/Getty Images) Full story
This will make the Radar. Guaranteed.
Ayman Mohyeldin is literally the world’s eyes and ears in Cairo. Tremendous work by this journalist. Watch live on Al-Jazeera.
On the off chance that you haven’t been paying attention to the situation in Egypt, especially today, follow the link to Al-Jazeera’s live coverage.
First off, a pro is necessarily getting paid to do what he does, and that’s a tough trick these days all on its own. But a pro is also defined by the scope and practice of his operation. A pro has sources. A pro knows how to spot a lie. A pro does the work. A pro gets it right. A pro knows how to hustle the corner, but he also knows his way around a paragraph. A pro does it all, and he does it all well, without vanity or fireworks. A pro doesn’t leave any holes or openings, in his soul most of all. You want to know how to stand out, Andrew? Be a fucking pro.
Chris Jones, of Esquire, dropping some science on a young writer. (via capitalnewyork)
This so, so crucial, and not just »
Stanley Kubrick’s Napoleon: The Greatest Movie Never Made
TASCHEN is making a significantly cheaper version of one of the coolest books to come out last year. Originally a 10 volume set that came in one giant book, it’s now all contained in one giant collection. It is the meticulously collected information Kubrick amassed on Napoleon for what was supposed to be the next project following 2001.
It comes out in March from Taschen and just slightly cheaper in April on Amazon. It contains the script Kubrick wrote for it, which is worth the price of admission alone.
“We love musicals, and we love Mormons,” Parker says. “I think if any Mormons come and stay all the way through, they’ll end up liking the show. I mean, it rips on them a lot, but in the end their spirit of wanting to help wins the day.”
“Of course,” Stone points out, “we do have a song where everybody sings, ‘Fuck you, God.’ ”
“We’re just having some fun at God’s expense,” Parker says. “I think He can take it.”
Stone nods in agreement, adding, “He sure can dish it out.”
– South Park’s Creators New Comedy-Musical: The Book of Mormon (via Vogue)
This show just keeps getting better and better. (via thatgirlallison)
“You develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it. From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, ‘Look at that, you son of a bitch.’” — Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell
The Most Inspirational Unofficial NASA Commercial Ever
A Youtube user thinks NASA is “the most fascinating, adventurous, epic institution ever devised by human beings”. We agree. That same guy thinks NASA has no idea how to promote itself. So he made this commercial for them. It’s beautiful.
Titled ‘The Frontier is Everywhere’, this fan-made video perfectly combines an eloquent Carl Sagan voiceover from The Pale Blue Dot with timely splicing of poignant images of Earth and outer space. In the end, going to space is as much about looking at ourselves and the current world around us as it is launching a shuttle.
NASA’s current budget cuts obviously make it a bit difficult to focus heavy resources on public relations and social media, but reconnecting the people with the wonder of space, like this video does, should be more important than »
Japanese artist Isao Hashimoto has created a beautiful, undeniably scary time-lapse map of the 2053 nuclear explosions which have taken place between 1945 and 1998, beginning with the Manhattan Project’s “Trinity” test near Los Alamos and concluding with Pakistan’s nuclear tests in May of 1998. This leaves out North Korea’s two alleged nuclear tests in this past decade (the legitimacy of both of which is not 100% clear).
Each nation gets a blip and a flashing dot on the map whenever they detonate a nuclear weapon, with a running tally kept on the top and bottom bars of the screen. Hashimoto, who began the project in 2003, says that he created it with the goal of showing”the fear and folly of nuclear weapons.” It starts really slow — if you want to see real action, skip ahead to »