Hasta La Motion!

Millimeter’s April 2009 issue covers the making of Star Trek, including ILM’s visual effects.

All of the animations seen in David Wilson’s music video for Moray McLaren’s ‘We Got Time‘ were created in camera. Repeat: in camera. No CG, no compositing animation loops onto footage – just taking advantage of the way film and persistence of vision works.

I’m a sucker for pre-cinema optical toys – kinetoscopes, zoetropes, magic lanterns, and the praxinoscopes featured in ‘We Got Time.’ Wilson doesn’t just rely on the charm of the medium though. Using the mechanism of rotation and looping as a starting point, he’s able to create a journey using simple but hypnotic animations that tie into the idea of life/death cycles. That may sound crazy, but just watch – things start to get really trippy around 2:30.

Also- check out the fantastic making-of video that gets deep into rpm and fps nerdiness, and the illustrated discs created by David Wilson.

Director and Animator – David Wilson
Executive Producer – Bart Yates
Producer – James Bretton
Production Company: Blinkink

Director of Photography – Tim Green
Production Manager – Ellie Britton
Art Direction – Will Randall and Hattie Newman
1st Assistant Director – Jerome Franc

RED Camera Operator – Nick Allsop and Jeff Brown

Motion Control Operator – Dennis Henry
Focus Puller – Jon Mitchell
Gaffer – Robin Brigham
Spark/Gaffer – Neil Blackman
Spark – Paul Allen

Actors- Will Harper and Gabriel Aronson

Editor – Mark Aarons
Post Production – The Mill
Colourist – James Bamford
Flame Artist – tbc
Producer – Matt Williams

Motion Control – MC2 Motion Control
Additional Camera Equipment – Take2Films
Lighting Equipment – Panalux Ltd

Making Of –
Director, Editor and Animator – Tom Kingsley
Onsite Shoot Footage, and Photography – Tim Keeling

Website Design – Mark Pavey

Additional thanks to…
Blink Productions, Malcolm Ryan Studios, TVC, Stonehouse Conseillers, Stephen Venning, Dave Bullivant, Holly Wales, Nick and Jane Wilson, Claire Jones, OneInThree, Simon Willows, Emerald Dangerfield, Sara Colding, Chris Lee, Bex Hobson, Lauren Jones, Clare Wilson, James Hobson, Ben Riley, Toby Jury Morgan, and Pete Dungey.

Posted on Motionographer

I’m not the one to speak authoritatively on NYC gay culture, but any movement that throws vogueing, 90’s vocal house, men’s leggings, Gucci Mane, happy hardcore & 2-step into a homo-thug blender AND makes sense out of it, is kinda-sorta killing it in every aspect of creativity. Our friend, Patrik North of Acéphale Recs, has been putting me up on what’s been brewing in this scene and I gotta say— I’m pretty gay for it.

If there was to be a unifying aesthetic in this “scene”, it would probably be fashion house, Hood By Air. You might be topically familiar with their designs via H & LA’s “Banjee” tank:

Their S/S ‘09 Lookbook has been up for a minute now, so go check it out.

On the music front, there’s Kingdom:

& House of Ladosha:

As per the description listed above, I don’t really know how to describe Kingdom’s music other than actually being a literal shit-mix of 90’s vocal house, Gucci Mane, happy hardcore & 2-step. All I do really know is that he likes fractals… a lot. Fader describes House of Ladosha as being “the long lost northern kin of Crime Mob”. I’m pretty confident that doesn’t even begin to sum it up… but take a look and see if you can figure it out for yourself.

-M.O.

Novelist and short story writer J.G. Ballard passed away on Sunday. Best known for his dystopian themed novels that ushered in the New Wave of science fiction in the late 60’s, Ballard’s influence has embedded itself deep within the cultural consciousness of modern film, literature & music. His best known work “Crash,” an exploration of sexual fetishism connected to automobile accidents, was eventually adopted into a film version by Canadian avant garde director, David Cronenberg.

The Guardian’s blog has an excellent write-up detailing Ballard’s far reaching influence on modern pop music. Artists ranging from Joy Division & Gary Numan to today’s Klaxons & Empire of the Sun all exist under the Ballardian umbrella, as does the entire genre of Dubstep. 

-M.O.

For most people, the concept of an infinite number of parallel universes that encompass every possible outcome for any given situation brings to mind notions of impossibly long mathematical equations that describe our reality in the soulless terms of math and science.

For Portland-based Impactist, it brings to mind love.

“Parallelostory” uses charmingly simple illustrations to weave an inter-dimensional tale of attraction. As always, Impactist (a.k.a. Kelly Meador and Daniel Elwing) created everything in this short, including the music. It perfectly sums up their hand-made aesthetic and delightful sensitivity to color and form.

QuickTime version available on the Impactist site.

Thanks to two if by see for the nudge.

Posted on Motionographer