via The Science Foundation

Carl Sagans Cosmos - Episode 1 - The Shores Of The Cosmic Ocean

Cosmos: A Personal Voyage is a thirteen-part television series written by Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan, and Steven Soter, with Sagan as presenter. It was executive-produced by Adrian Malone, produced by David Kennard, Geoffrey Haines-Stiles and Gregory Andorfer, and directed by the producers and David Oyster, Richard Wells, Tom Weidlinger, and others. 

This episode, more than anything else, changed my view on what was possible with a serialized nonfiction story. The way the writers choose to speak about science and astronomy and evolution was as risky as it was poetic.

1st spotted via flyawaysunday:

Wow.  Really interesting.  His compassion for life and people is amazing.

Despite the slightly awkward interviewer, this archive is insightful. 

I wish I could go back in time, and check in on my-younger-self for every time I sat down to watch Mr. Roger’s - this man and his stories had such an affect on me growing up; part of me wonders if I had any idea at the time… 

(via staggerlane-deactivated20130210)

I’m Here - Spike Jonze

Recently re-watched this short film to prepare for some writing I’m doing at work. I wish more brands were brave enough to take such a hands-off approach to short stories - Absolut went about this very tastefully. 

via hbumbalo

3200 Meter Race at Ohio 2012 State Track Meet - - The West Liberty-Salem athlete finished first in the 1600 meter race earlier in the day. She was running in last place in the 3200 meter race when she approached her opponent struggling to pick herself up from the track on the home stretch. Without hesitation, she scooped her competitor up and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. As the crowd roared, the incredible sportsmanship continued to the finish line…

This makes me terribly nostalgic for my years of cross and track. 

via Cinetic

PressPausePlay - The digital revolution of the last decade has unleashed creativity and talent of people in an unprecedented way, unleashing unlimited creative opportunities. But does democratized culture mean better art, film, music and literature or is true talent instead flooded and drowned in the vast digital ocean of mass culture? Is it cultural democracy or mediocrity? This is the question addressed by PressPausePlay, a documentary film containing interviews with some of the world’s most influential creators of the digital era.

This was a fantastic watch. I was surprised there wasn’t any closing thoughts from Andrew Keen near the end of the film, I’m not sure when he’s last featured in this documentary, but it seemed as though he was in the middle of trying to make a point; I didn’t particularly find his take on the internet convincing - still, it was interesting to hear his argument that the openness of the internet has killed art and flooded our lives with mediocrity.

What side of the fence do you find yourself on? Do you believe the internet drives more of us to be creative?, or do you think the internet drowns out the true artists… whatever that means? 

(via thingsilikeon)

spotted via portable - the animals by angeline gragasin

Director Angeline Gragasin created The Animals with an all female executive level production team: something that is oddly and sadly a rarity in the industry. Along with Gargasin (also lead actress) was Caitlin Doughty (writer) Rachel Wolther (producer), Meredith Zielke (DP), Meredith Ries (Production designer) and Abby Walton (Costume designer). Together they have successfully and triumphantly created a short film that I so yearn for; cinematically surreal yet not unsatisfyingly short, a well written script, engaging concept complimented with this mystifying, elongated and [hypnotizing] question mark that underlies the whole film and draws you in and challenges you to keep watching and figure out this perfectly quirky narrative. I want to tell you what this film is about in one of those fantastically well rounded sentences that sums up its style and intent, but for the life of me: describing The Animals would be like trying to describe the depth and beauty of a Rothko to someone totally unfamiliar with his work. Gragasin’s film is visceral and strangely moving in this uncomfortable, jarring kind of way, it’s absurdly beautiful in its execution and it’s the best short film you will see all week (or month, or year). Undeniably, though, after watching this film you may feel a little inquisitive, a little lost. Luckily we picked the brains and spoke to this wonder director cum actress cum total badass, Angeline Gragasin. Enjoy.

There are some really strange and lovely moments in this just-released short film from Angeline - I don’t know how much of this tale is a dream or an overdose or something else entirely; but there’s a lot of choices in mood and direction here that are very charming and very different. 

1st spotted via The Fox Is Black

Continuing the idea of sound design a bit further from the previous post about Leg Bound, is “a movie from the point of view of the Solid Rocket Booster with sound mixing and enhancement done by the folks at Skywalker Sound.” You know how there’s no sound in space because it’s a vacuum? Well whatever the hell the cameras and recording devices are picking up on this video is something pretty strange and fantastic. I found the sounds to be rather soothing, you know, once the rocket has been detached and all that. It might not be the most engaging thing to watch, it takes about 8 minutes for the rocket booster to fall back to Earth, but strap on some headphones and take a listen to something you’ve never heard before.

I watched every last second of this. There was one moment when I almost - out of habit more than anything else - skipped forward, but I stopped myself, hit fullscreen and enjoyed the rare and stunning point-of-view riding on the back of a space-rocket. I can’t wait to re-watch this with my good headphones.

Source: youtu.be

Sometimes getting there can be half the fun. Use Google Maps to explore your world and get to your destination on time.

Building the cubed map for this video must have been so much fun. I love all the little painted buildings and pinball-machine parts. Very creative stuff. 

Source: youtube.com

YOUTH LAGOON - JULY - Charles Bergquist and Sezio capture Youth Lagoon’s studio session of their Best New Track “July”.

I admittedly can’t get enough of this song right now… 

(via thingsilikeon)

ONLY Because We Can is a short film / commercial that grabbed my attention for more than 20 minutes yesterday. Which, if I had to guess, is probably, about 20 minutes longer than any commercial has grabbed my attention - ever. 

Things to note:

  • there is no play / pause / scrub UI, the short film starts playing the moment it loads, very simple; 
  • there is no “brought to you by blah blah blah” before or after, just a simply ONLY presents that reads so fast I didn’t even really notice it the 1st time; 
  • to pause you click anywhere on the image and it shifts from letterbox to full-frame, which gives a really nice diving-in feel to it; 
  • little + symbols appear overtop of clothing, and if you click on any of those you’re simply presented with a nice slide-in side-panel, nothing ever takes you out of the film; 
  • the sound fades out in pause-mode and you just hear a loop that keeps the mood of the short film going even when you’re exploring, an extra nice touch is the narration, if there happens to be any when you click to pause, keeps going and finishes its line, so there’s no real feeling of interrupting the film; 
  • anything you click on during the short is tracked and presented in a really nice box layout at the end of the film.

But, my favorite part of this commercial, is the biggest box on that end page is a download link for the song, which, by the way, is free - verses a giant buy now link, not a cheap sweepstake endplate asking you to fill out some form. 

They opted to tell a nice little minimalist story, make it fun, and leave it at that. And because they did that, because they were different, it had a real impact on me where banner ads and 30 second spots never do. 

The team behind this did just about everything right, especially considering that 99% of the time companies get squeamish and f#%k up a good thing. I do wish the tweet this button included in it’s default text a @mention for ONLY, it only has a link to the site right now, and I wish this was built on HTML5 so it was more device friendly, but the packet size might have been too large. 

In any case, I really, really enjoyed this. 

Deep Ocean Mysteries and Wonders - In the deepest, darkest parts of the oceans are ecosystems with more diversity than a tropical rainforest. Taking us on a voyage into the ocean — from the deepest trenches to the remains of the Titanic — marine biologist David Gallo explores the wonder and beauty of marine life.

via eve merlot, by hellogiggles

Dance Like Nobody’s Watching: Laundromat 

(via hellogiggles)

Source: youtube.com

spotted via david seger:

Santa Claus (1898) - Delby just showed me this old short Santa movie. I don’t know why it blew my mind but it really did. What a neat little clip. FILM IS WONDERFUL. CHRISTMAS IS MAGIC.

Santa Claus is a 1898 British short silent drama film, directed by George Albert Smith, which features Santa Claus visiting a house on Christmas Eve. The film, according to Michael Brooke of BFI Screenonline, “is believed to be the cinema’s earliest known example of parallel action…”

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