Fotografieke

I’m too busy taking care of other business right now so blogging has sunk a few spots on my list of priorities, sadly. But my eyes always wander all over the net looking for wonderful stuff, so let me just give you a mini-report for now. I will be back very soon with some reviews on recent cd releases and some other cool things.

Trailer for ‘A Single Man’
You know those ads for designer clothes and perfumes, those that look so very stylishly theatrical? Well this is a movie trailer that looks like an ad that looks theatrical! No wonder really, considering that the movie is directed by Tom Ford, of all people.

Liu Bolin – ‘Transparency’ artist
I found this amazing artist’s pictures through V1kram‘s blog. Yes, it’s painted!

Sondre Lerche – pictures by Isabell N. Wedin
Sondre kindly mentioned photographer Isabell N. Wedin on Twitter in regard to the new pictures used for his latest recording, ‘Heartbeat Radio’. I’m planning a little review later on.

Etsy shop: Elizabeth Wren Vintage
Ever since I started watching Mad Men and long before that show even started I developed an uncontrollable desire for 60s items. In those days there was such an incredible mix of quality products and pure, pure kitsch. But both very easy on the eye! Elizabeth Wren dug up some interesting vintage items.

Working as a volunteer at a local moviehouse, while I sell tickets for the movies on view for the evening I find myself staring at the movie posters across the counter a lot longer than I’d like to admit. It’s become quite entertaining to analyze the movie posters on display and try to put into words why I prefer one poster over the other.

Recognizability is what’s important for the blockbusters of the western world. As a fan of independent, small movies I can’t stand all those generic, commercial movie posters. On the other hand, a poster for a commercial movie looking all artsy and intellectual, will most likely bore the living crap out of blockbuster lovers. The trick is to come up with a design that will register just long enough to remind people to walk into the theatre. A cracking movie poster is an incredibly powerful marketing tool.
I’m not condemning the movie industry and all its plain looking promo-material. The quality of all that plain looking promo-material isn’t bad at all. But what I do find interesting is how most commercial movie posters become rather hysterically predictable when in larger numbers.

Because of this I’d like to show just how much they all look like the next one, and I’d like to propose different methods of designing a movie poster, with a slightly tongue-in-cheek approach.  I just can’t help myself..

I’ve collected recent posters (all 2009) to vizualize my theory:

Action/Thriller
It comes as no surprise that this is all about men, very anxious looking men, surrounded by either anxious looking villains or buddies, an occasional anxious looking woman and/or a gloomy environment. The little head-turn and suspicious glance to the side are also clear action poster characteristics.

Action/Adventure
Crossing over to adventure we notice more anxious looking ladies and gentlemen, this time (mostly) on their own, completely centered, weapon drawn and ready for battle. Whatever battle they’re facing, it’s bound to be rough. (although I’m wondering what Mr. Gray’s up to)

Drama
We’re moving slowly from anxious to happy or sad facial expressions. In the category drama the designers develop a  sudden urge to use lots of squares and rectangles to be able to get either the entire cast involved or show some moviestills.

Romance/Comedy
I try my best to avoid any movie where the actors are potrayed looking like the ones below. This category needs no further explanation I’m sure. One thing though: a lot of men still haven’t worn off their anxious looks or have gone to shocked/ill-at-ease.

Animation/Family
Designers find it necessary to be as obvious as possible if it comes to flicks for kids, therefor including most, if not all characters and use as many colours as possible. Kids love it, you know! And notice the huddling.

Now let me propose some solutions and show alternative ways of making a poster look awesome. Again I’m only showing posters from 2009.

Characteristics
If we’re talking about characteristics, why not use the main character’s? And keep it simple, less=more.

Graphics
Don’t shy away from using pencils, brush, crayons, but same goes for Photoshop, Illustrator and the lot.

Teenagers
Dealing with teenagers? Go all Juno, use their crazy imagination!

Love Story
Want to focus on the couple? Use colour, go abstract. No white backgrounds! And be easy on the leading actors, don’t photoshop the poor people until they look like their own waxmodels.

Cast
Sure you can introduce the entire cast if that’s your thing. Put them in one scene for example. Do an impromptu shoot between takes. And if you insist on using geometry keep it interesting. Use colour, avoid predictable (a)symmetry.

Moviestills
If you’re using moviestills for your design, why not just use one as a whole? Toy around with typography and its location within the moviestill, surprise and charm people with a stunning shot.

Faceless
Designs without the actors can send off a powerful message. All the more room for graphics and your own creativity.

After writing this item I came across actually just one blog that discusses movie posters and does so on a regular basis. If you’ve been drooling over the above posters, whichever posters you were drooling over, you’ll enjoy this blog: Movie Poster Addict.

This week I went into town to see ‘The Young Victoria’. The past few years I’ve seen a fair few royal moving pictures, among which ‘The Queen’, ‘Elizabeth’, ‘The Other Boleyn Girl’ etc. It’s very intriguing to watch all of them and eventually being able to connect the stories chronogically. If you’re not too familiar with royal history, this is a lovely way to educate yourself.

It’s apparent that the British royals are a very popular resource for movies. Even tv-shows, of which ‘Elizabeth I’ and ‘The Tudors’ are recent examples. (Tidbit: ‘The Tudors’ has been created by Michael Hirst, who directed ‘Elizabeth’ and ‘Elizabeth: The Golden Age’) Having watched a certain number of those movies and shows you can see a clear division between the overly dramatized and the fairly realistic. ‘The Young Victoria’ can be catagorized in the latter. With a movie like ‘The Other Boleyn Girl’ and a show like ‘The Tudors’ we’ve been made aware that facts aren’t that important to its creators. What’s more important is to engage and entertain the viewer, so a heavy dramatisation and a loose grip on history isn’t considered to be a sin with that purpose in mind.

However, it is a pleasure to watch a movie that is both true to life (as true as possible of course) and engaging. ‘The Young Victoria’ succeeds in both. Queen Victoria’s life story obviously lends itself for a lot of onscreen drama, but by the end of the movie all I could say is that the creators have done a fine job in keeping it classy and tasteful. They’ve clearly indulged on the visual side of things. The costumes and locations are a joy to behold. There are a dozen of lovely camera angles and tricks to look out for and Emily Blunt and Rupert Friend are incredible, their best performances to date. What I considered a lovely bonus is how much care has been taken of the casting. Most of the actors show a fair resemblance to the real royals. I was exceptionally surprised my Paul Bettany’s appearance, he’s barely recognizable.

There are obviously plenty of complaints when it comes to a movie like this. According to some people, this movie should have focussed on a larger part of Victoria’s young life, showing how she became responsible for the biggest turning point in the history of the UK. How people can expect one single movie to deal with a thing like that, a reigning period of 63 years, is beyond me. I prefer to consider this the beginning, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we’d see a few sequels in the near future. I normally detest the idea of a sequel, but in this case I certainly wouldn’t mind!

Brigitte Lacombe is a French photographer who’s seen it all. She’s worked with the biggest names in entertainment and politics, done the portraits, the editorials, the travel shoots. There’s one part of her extensive portfolio that I love, her filmset shots. This is a small dedicational post for a friend, I hope it’ll inspire a little dear!

American Artifact is a doc about American poster art and it premiered June 20 in the US.

Objectified is a documentary as you might’ve guessed. It deals with our connection, relation to and obsession with objects in the broadest sense of the word. As a bit of a gadget and design geek I’d love to see this doc. It not only focusses on our obssesion with stuff, it also discusses our landfill, how designers are faced with their designs winding up in the trash more often than they’re actually being used and reused. So yes, it gives us yet another mirror to look at the climate crisis, but an economical mirror as well. We’re currently in a global crisis that we apperently can’t get rid of. If we buy less and continue to do so, the economy will never recover. If we buy more we mess up our environment even more than we’re doing now. What’s a designer’s perspective and thoughts on all this?

The documentary premiered at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas in March and is given screenings in some parts of the world. If you want to see it and can’t make it to a screening, you’ll have to wait for the dvd release in July, which you buy online on the movie’s official website, along with stuff like T-shirts, posters and more. (hilariously ironic, don’t you think?)

Trailer

Michael Berg (David Kross) is a 15-year-old boy who meets the 36-year old Hanna Schmitz (Kate Winslet). An unlikely summer romance follows, with Michael reading to Hanna and lots and lots of lovemaking after reading. When Hanna leaves without a trace Michael is left puzzled and distraught. He goes on with his life until one day when he’s attending WWII trials as a law student, he’s shocked to find Hanna in the defender’s chair as a former SS officer.
We follow the trial for a good deal of the second half of the movie, and look on as Michael sits there in silence. What turns out to be the most important detail of the movie is the fact that Michael knows something about Hanna that nobody knows. This small but vital piece of information is in his hands and he’s the only one that could turn her fate. One thing is for sure: Hanna will not reveal the truth herself.

For me, movies are a great tool to provoke debate, to make one doubt previous viewpoints. The Reader does an excellent job on this. You’re invited to take on the role of Michael as he observes Hanna during the trials. What would you do if you were Michael? Same goes for Hanna: what would you do if you were her? There’s no easy way out. This is why you’ll be questioning complicated moral issues as the credits roll by. Personally I find it difficult to judge both Michael and Hanna for what they’ve done, or for what they didn’t do.

I’m not quite sure that this is the kind of movie worthy of an Oscar. Not that it’s not a job well done, but it’s a movie that serves very well for educational purposes in my opinion, much more so than some other post-war movies that I’ve seen. It shouldn’t be lowered to being just a film to entertain a jury audience. This is a very bleak and confronting story on an extremely human level, which will prove to be the best way to truly educate and inform future generations on consequences of war.

‘Nomade’ is Laverman‘s third record, exploring new borders by leaving the fado and a mexican-inspired style on ‘Sielesâlt’ and ‘De Maisfrou’ behind. She went to Mongolia for a month and started listening intensively to artists and bands such as Radiohead and Björk. The latter seems to be the biggest influence on ‘Nomade’, combined with subtle details reminding us of her trip to the Mongolian wilderness.

It’s an unbelievable transformation if you’ve known her as the singer who invented Frisian fado, which brought her raving reviews and recognition. With this new record she dives into an unknown territory, going down the pop-route by using synths and catchy beats. Her first single ‘De Ûntdekker’ reminded me of ‘Earth Intruders’ just a little too much, without knowing of Björk’s influence at the time. The stamping feet, the vocals, I’d even say that it made me wonder if I was listening to a Frisian interpretation of Björk’s song. But songs like ‘Snie yn Augustus’ and ‘De Toek-Toek Tuorren’ make it quite difficult to pigeon-hole this record or to write it off as an attempt to compete with Björk’s untouchable authenticity.

But in the end Nynke manages quite well on her own, arming herself with her incredible voice and the guts to reinvent herself as an artist. I think she’s ready for a new and younger audience, and the same goes the other way around I believe. Thumbs up!

Ceilings will never be the same.

Original title: ‘La Naissance des Pieuvres’.

Marie and Anne are friends. Everything runs smoothly until Marie befriends Floriane. Floriane and François are sleeping together, at least that’s what Floriane wants Marie to believe. Anne is desperate to lose her virginity and got her eyes on François. Marie is tired of Anne’s behaviour and jealous of Floriane.

There we are. Three young girls struggling to grow up. Their performances come across so naturally that it’s easy to get lost in the story and think back of your own teenage years. The choices you have to make, the people you will hurt, the people you would want to avoid or get rid of, the ones you hate, envy or adore. It’s all in there and gently sewn together. What I loved about the movie is the absence of adults. There’s an occasional 30-something bloke snooping around where he shouldn’t be snooping, but that’s it. The rest is up to the kids, no preaching parents, no grumpy teachers. Just 15-year-olds with their bottled up emotions.