| Posted by Brandon | September 25th, 2009 |
In order to promote Jay-Z‘s new album, The Blueprint 3, and the early release by Rhapsody, New York’s Droga5 has produced a great commercial that takes you through the life of Jay-Z’s cover art.
The first time I saw the commercial I was amazed and wanting to listen to every Jay-Z song in my library. The commercial definitely succeeded in hyping his new album, however, now that I’ve had the chance to watch the commercial a few times it’s not perfect and it left me wishing for something more. Firstly, I wish the covers were represented in chronological order. Two, it’s as if they got lazy with planning out the ending, they just fade to the cover of The Blueprint 3? What is that?! Why couldn’t they finish it in the same “on set” style as the rest of the piece? It probably wouldn’t have been too hard either, considering the cover for the new album isn’t CG (see video below). Trés, they use some pretty mediocre screen wipes in post to link the scenes together. I think with a bit more time and planning this could have been accomplished in a single take and that would have made the commercial AMAZING!
Photograph by Jonathan Mannion
Photograph by Jonathan Mannion
Photograph by Jonathan Mannion
Photograph by Jonathan Mannion
Photograph by Jonathan Mannion
Photograph by Jonathan Mannion
Photograph by Jonathan Mannion
Photograph by Jonathan Mannion
Photograph by Jonathan Mannion
Photograph by Arthur Elgort
Photograph by Dan Tobin Smith
| Posted by Brandon | September 16th, 2009 |
This is going to be brief, but I did want to give a quick update on the things going on and why I haven’t added any new posts since the end of August.
The short answer is simply because I haven’t had the time. I’m totally swamped in freelance work right now, which financially is a great thing! Although it has some down sides (primarily with my social life), the benefits far out weigh them. Perhaps some of my contributing authors will step it up and help out in my absence over the next few weeks.
The long answer… Well… It’s too long for me to spend the time typing out right now.
Watch for some new great things to be released over the next couple months! Here are some hints:
If you’re really that bored (**cough* Brian Hale *cough**), then go join Digg, they have tons of great content that’s updated all the time. Or if you’re needing new music, I highly suggestion listening to the CocoRosie or Crystal Castles stations over on Pandora.
I’ll be nice and not leave you completely empty handed. Here is some of the music that has been getting me through.
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| Posted by Brandon | August 27th, 2009 |
With two award winning titles, Flavor Country and Time Well Wasted, already under their belts, Sandbox Films has nothing to prove. But that doesn’t stop them from continuing to prove their one of the best in the game every season. Say what you will about Canadians, but Whistler is by far one of the best snow towns I have ever been to and I’m pretty jealous that it’s Sandbox’s daily backyard playground. Unfortunately this last season many ski areas suffered poor snow conditions, and Whistler wasn’t an exception. Sandbox also had to deal with quite a few injuries to their riders.
Andrew took a bad slam at a park session with Snowboarder Mag. They built a massive jump with a sketchy inrun. Andrew got tossed off the take off and came down hard on his side. His femur bone shot up and shattered his pelvis and his arm broke really bad.
Sounds like they had an unluckily season. Judging by the trailer though, it appears that Sandbox has still been able to make the best of it and put together a quality film.
| Posted by Brandon | August 25th, 2009 |
After seeing this video last week of Iced-T destroying his his Mac Book Pro because the screen quite working, I thought I would give everyone some options to actually do something useful with their old or slightly broken computer equipment by donating it to help others.
If you have a computer that is less then five years old, chances are that it can be put to good use by someone else. Rather than donate equipment directly to a charity or school, however, it is usually best for all involved if you can send it to a refurbisher, especially if you need to wipe your hard drive or are uncertain about the computer’s condition. Refurbishers will ensure that equipment they send to nonprofits and schools works well and runs legal copies of software, and that any e-waste is disposed of properly. The best service I have found for donating your computer gear is TechSoup Stock. TechSoup Stock is an online product donation service that connects nonprofits with technology product donations from more than twenty-five leading corporate and nonprofit technology partners. TechSoup Stock is a nonprofit serving nonprofits. Their low fees have saved over 50,000 nonprofits approximately $400 million, a savings they can redirect into their programs. According to the EPA’s Plug in to eCycling program, only 15-20% of retired personal computers, TVs, cell phones and other electronic devices are being recycled in the United States. Every computer dumped into a landfill represents a missed opportunity to provide Information-Age tools to individuals and organizations in need of helping to bridge the digital gap. So before you go off and try to act like a bad ass because you can break a laptop with a hammer, I’d urge you to do some good, not just for the environment, but also for others in need.
In order to make computer donation and refurbishing less of a burden than gift for the non-profits, here are ten tips for donating your computer hardware:
| Posted by Brandon | August 24th, 2009 |
Over the past couple years I’ve been seeing more and more projected videos on buildings. Created by Urban Screen, this one is by far the best I have seen. The way the architecture of the building is incorporated with the 3D animations makes the building come alive.
The art direction was done by Daniel Rossa out of Germany. He’s got a nice collection of work in his portfolio that includes some great looking posters as well as other wall projections.
Manifest 01 by Daniel Rossa
Manifest 02 by Daniel Rossa
Manifest 03 by Daniel Rossa
Manifest by Daniel Rossa
| Posted by Brandon | August 20th, 2009 |
Think Thank has put out some pretty solid films over the past couple seasons. And this season’s production, Cool Story, doesn’t seem to be anything less than what viewers have come to expect. High production quality, cool personalities, and innovative riding is what the Think Thank crew is all about.
Think Thank usually comes with some great music too. The song used in the trailer is an older song called My Coco by Stellastarr*. Here’s a song a bit more up to date from their recently released album Civilized.
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| Posted by Brandon | August 20th, 2009 |
I rather enjoyed the song featured in Isenseven’s Let’s Go Get Lost trailer. So naturally I looked into the artist a bit more was very pleased. Not only does Kyle Andrews have one of the most sweetical looking boombox audio players on his site, but the music coming out of the speakers is also Real Blasty and a good listen.
With Thrice being plagued by a leaked album months before the release date, they went ahead and decided to release a digital version early with the hard copy to be released on September 15th that will include extra material. I think this is possible one of their best albums to date. It’s definitely their most mature sounding. Here’s what they had to say about the leak:
“Obviously, we’re incredibly disappointed with what happened. We understand that records leak constantly and that it’s almost entirely unavoidable nowadays, but we never thought we’d have to deal with a record leaking three months before it’s release date, and certainly never thought we’d have to deal with a leak before anyone in the band had even gotten a master reference of the record, or before the artwork for the booklet had even been completed. We’re also disappointed that you’re hearing the record for the first time, watermarked, with a Vagrant Records voiceover over every song. And we’re disappointed that the leak has thrown a massive and immovable wrench into the efforts that many people have made to prepare for the three months leading up to release. That said, what’s done is done, and we’re moving forward.” You can read the rest of Thrice’s statement here.
Interpol lead singer Paul Banks has released his first solo album Julian Plenti… Is Skyscraper. I’ve always loved his voice and I’m really enjoying the album so far. He also has some weird ass videos on the Julian Plenti Vimeo page, but I love them!
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| Posted by Brandon | August 11th, 2009 |
What’s better than having an Elektro dance party to open up your snowboard teaser? Oh yeah… Great filming. Great locations. Great snowboarding. And great editing. That’s exactly what Alterna Films gives you. I’ve never seen one of Alterna’s films before, but this one will be on my must see list this video season. I love the dance party count down and the “dropping” ending. Good Stuff.
| Posted by Brandon | August 10th, 2009 |
I’m not exactly sure what it is about these Deer heads by Jennifer Khoshbin, but I absolutely love them. I will definitely be purchasing one of them but I’m not sure which one yet, I have it narrowed down to two. And I probably wouldn’t tell you which one anyway because I wouldn’t want it to sell out before I got a hold of it.
Jennifer’s book manipulations and illustrations are also spectacular. The cut out circle concept is great and her word selection is so fitting for each piece. Jen is currently on exhibition with the Jen11 Show, which features the work of 11 artists named Jennifer. The exhibit will be displayed at Composition through September. I will be making my way down to see the peices and I suggest you do the same.
“My work expresses the idea of the story, fable, or tale, attempting to sort out the past and create new beginnings. How these stories have affected me and my culture are represented through a combination of book and animal sculptures, drawings and writings. I am artificially reimagining things in a handmade wilderness.”
| Posted by Brandon | August 7th, 2009 |
The Insight Dopamine (I & II) campaign is stunning. What’s even more amazing is these pictures aren’t photoshopped. The underwater scenes are very intriguing alone, and then you add a surfer completely barreled and you have some of the most extraordinary surf photos ever. I absolutely love this campaign and can’t imagine the type of coordinating it must have taken to capture some of these scenes.
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