Objectified, A New Film by Gary Hustwit
July 29, 2008 | Categories: Design / Films

I’d like to think I know a lot about design, but when I watched Helvetica last year I definitely learned a lot about the font that I really had no idea about. It was also cool to see the opinion of proffesional designers and their thoughts and opinions on the font. So now it’s pretty exciting that Gary HUstwit, the director of Helvetica, has announced his newest project called Objectified.

The movie centers around industrial design, and the people who’ve made a huge difference in the field. It also talks about the designers and their motivations as well as our relationships with the objects the create and what we can learn about ourselves by the things we surround ourselves with. The movie so far has the creme of the crop when it comes to I.D. people, the list so far includes:

Paola Antonelli, Chris Bangle, Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec, Andrew Blauvelt, Anthony Dunne, Naoto Fukasawa, IDEO, Jonathan Ive, Hella Jongerius, Marc Newson, Fiona Raby, Dieter Rams, Karim Rashid, Alice Rawsthorn, Rob Walker with more to come.

I’m totally stoked about this film, seeing as how these are some of my favorite designers out there. The film should be release by sometime in early in 2009, so be sure to check in with the site to see when it’s playing in your area!

Bobby

Stanley Kubrick’s Boxes
July 23, 2008 | Categories: Films / Video

I just finished watching this really great documentary called Stanley Kubrick’s Boxes, a rather self-explanatory title but extremely interesting to watch. Stanley Kubrick is somewhat of a cult figure (just read through Coudal on any given day) so people trying to figure out the deepest parts of Kubrick is nothing new. But in this documentary Jon Ronson is invited to the Kubrick estate to go through his immense collections of boxes, which number into the thousands. The contents of the boxes are extremely varied and all over the place, from photos to fan letters, and show what a detailed and intelligent man he really was.

One of the things I found most interesting was his obsession with perfection, and I don’t mean that in a bad way. For many of his films he’d have his nephew Manuel Harlan take tens of thousands of photos to see what was out there. He took photos of doorways, morgues, estate gates, costume shops, anything that might be useful. He did those for most of his movies as well, like trying to find the perfect hat for the droogies to wear in A Clockwork Orange.

If you have any interest in Kubrick I would definitely suggest watching this, it’s quite insightful. Also, I don’t know how long the video will stay up, so watch it ASAP.

Found through The Constant Siege

Bobby

Logan’s Run Poster by Tom Muller
July 21, 2008 | Categories: Design / Films

I’ve been a fan of Tom Muller’s work for quite a while now, his name coming into my vocabulary because of his work with the amazing Ashley Wood. The other day I took a visit to his site and noticed the rad poster you see above that he created for Darren Firth’s Now Showing exhibit. For me personally, this poster brings me back to my childhood. My mother raised me on a strange assortment of movies, this happening to be one of them. So I have all these random memories of palm crystals and death chambers and libraries overgrown with foliage.

For the poster Mr. Muller ended up attacking it one, but ended up in a completely different place. At first he started out with more of an infographic approach, visually representing the 30 year lifespan of a person living in that world. I think this version looks awesome, but Tom wasn’t happy with it. So his focus shifted to the exterior of the Selfridges store in Birmingham, something his wife suggested to him. Based up on that he asked his brother Tim to create a “kind of red rubbery studded ball in 3D”, something that could represent many things in an abstract way. This lead to a more simple approach to the poster, using Futura as the font and keeping things clean and minimal.

I think overall it turned out really well, I would love to own this poster. For more info on the creation of the poster, be sure to click here.

Bobby

The Dark Knight
July 21, 2008 | Categories: Films

Saturday night I went out with my best friend and a bunch of his friends to celebrate his birthday, and what’s a better way to do that than to see the new Batman flick? Both my best friend and I are closet nerds, we have many other interests, but when it comes to comic books, we know ungodly amounts, probably to the point of embarrassment. So saying that we were excited about the movie was a slight understatement, not that we dressed up or anything!

Now having seen The Dark Knight, I can without a doubt in my mind say that it’s my favorite movie of the year so far, if not the best all year. The movie is two and half hours of perfection, every performance is nuanced, every directorial decision is flawless, and you’re left sitting in the theater as the credits are rolling wanting more. Heath Ledger was so amazing, it’s kind of hard to put it into words. I know a lot of people are seeing this movie because of his tragic death, but that has nothing to do with my thoughts on his role. He made you laugh and creeped the shit out of you. What he did with that character was above and beyond what I think anyone ever imagined, and I wholeheartedly believe that he should get an Oscar nod. But really, every actor int he movie was absolutely amazing and gave flawless performances.

But I don’t think any of it would have been possible without Chris Nolan’s amazing vision of the movie. The fact that he directed and helped write it definitely plays a large role in this, as he really oversaw every bit and detail. The movie is PG-13, but there are definitely some VERY visceral scenes where even though they don’t show anything, you’re definitely disturbed by what just happened. Anyhow, I hate writing this really vague reviews, I just don’t want to spoil anything. Just go see the damn movie, it’s definitely worth your time and money.

Bobby

The Official Watchmen Trailer
July 17, 2008 | Categories: Comic Books / Films

Here it is lady and gents, the next big movie coming from DC Comics, one of the most celebrated comic books ever written, Watchmen. For those who’ve never read it, WIkipedia describes it as:

Watchmen is set in 1985, in an alternative history United States where costumed adventurers are real and the country is edging closer to a nuclear war with the Soviet Union (the Doomsday Clock is at five minutes to midnight). It tells the story of a group of past and present superheroes and the events surrounding the mysterious murder of one of their own.

The book basically changed the entire medium of comics, edging more towards a darker, more realistic tone in comic books. The comic was seen more as an epic novel done in comic book form than about people dressing up in tights. It was about real people with problems, trying to deal with a murder of one of their own on the brink of world disaster. And even though it’s been 22 years since it first came out, the ideas in the book still ring true, just different circumstances.

Directing the picture is Zak Snyder who also did 300, and while it wasn’t the best plot, it was certainly beautiful to look at, and he’s definitely recaptured that. I personally think the trailer looks great, it looks like he’s definitely gotten the mood and feel of the world, the characters look right and real, and hopefully the story can hold up to the original book… But I’m not holding my breath. Anyhow, watch the trailer and let me know what you think. I think if DC can keep this up they could start to rival Marvel in movie terms (they’re still nothing comic book-wise, haha…).

Or watch it over on Apple Trailers in HD, plus it has the iconic smiley button : )

Bobby

Beast with a Billion Backs
June 24, 2008 | Categories: Films / Television / Video

My inner nerd is crying tears of pure joy because the new Futurama movie, Beast With A Billion Backs, is out today! I’m a giant Futurama fan (it’s way better than Family Guy, I’m sorry) so it’s so fun that they keep releasing these movies to continue the fun. In this movie an anamoly is discovered out in space, so Professor Farnsworth and the rest of the Planet Express crew go to investigate it, but are blown through space after Bender puts his shiny metal ass in it. Realizing only organic matter can go through, they decided to let Zapp Branigan destroy whatever is in there instead of further studying it. But Fry is able to get on board Zapp’s ship and get through the portal first, discovering a giant tentacle being voiced by David Cross.

I summed this up pretty poorly, but that’s the gist of. Plus you have the video above to show you what I’m trying to say. I’ve also put another video under the cut which shows some more scenes as well as David Cross talking about how he can be such an amazing voice actor. Enjoy.

Keep reading Beast with a Billion Backs…

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, But Nicely Typeset
June 19, 2008 | Categories: Books / Design / Films

Of all the movies that are coming out this year, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is definitely in the top 5. I’m a huge fan of David Fincher (Fight Club is one of my very favorite movies) and the story itself just sounds so cool. As it turns out so is Jonathon McNicol, a designer from Connecticut who not only runs Chip Kidd’s website but also is a regular contributor to clusterflock. Jonathon, in all of his excitement, has decided to create a “proofread and nicely (hopefully) typeset” PDF version of the story, one chapter at a time over the next 11 days.

I’ve already read the first chapter and it’s beautifully put together and gets me really excited to see the movie. My only hesitation is that I’ll know hwo the movie ends, but I guess it would be better to stay true and read the book then worry about the movie? Where do my morals stand?! P.S. I put the paper pattern behind the page up there, just so you all didn’t have to stare at an almost blank page.

Bobby

Glow-In-The-Dark Metropolis Poster by Pietari Posti
June 16, 2008 | Categories: Art / Design / Films / Illustration

I received and email from the awesome Pietari Posti this morning letting me know that he has a new poster for sale in his shop. The poster is a re-thinking of the classic movie Metropolis, but with his unique Pietari spin on it. It’s a part of the Underware’s Now Showing project, which has artists do their own versions of classic movie posters.

I’m totally loving this poster for several reasons. First, it’s frigging huge, measuring in at 32″ x 46″, this poster would look awesome absolutely anywhere. Second, the colors are so perfect. Pietari is a master of color combos and that orange/steel/camel/white colorway is definitely hot. Third, the damn thing glows in the dark! How cool is that? The poster comes in a limited edition of 100 prints and goes for roughly $125, so get ‘em while you can!

Bobby

Displacements by Michael Naimark
June 15, 2008 | Categories: Art / Films

How the world never runs out of clever ideas, I’ll never know, but I’m quite thankful. Displacements, an “immersive film installation”, is something that I wold dub clever. It’s not deep, it’s not impossible to figure out how it was done, it’s just a really good idea and the world is better off with it.

Displacements was first created in 1980 by artist Michael Naimark. Michael took what he thought was a typical American household, and filmed two performers on 16mm film, going about and doing random actions, interacting with the space. The then took that same space and spray painted it completely white, every nook and cranny. Then he took the 16mm footage he shot and projected it onto the white scene, creating this totally surreal environment with ghost-like people floating around. As the projection circles around the room you see a young girl spinning a globe until suddenly it’s gone, or a woman lying on a couch kicks the painting hanging above her with her toe, until that vanishes as well.

The video above is from 2005 when a friend of Michael’s suggested he tried to update what he did 21 years prior. This time around the people in the video are parents, and with them is their daughter. He also shot the footage digitally instead, which he notes, “was much more challenging.” I think this is so rad looking, it reminds me a lot of the Haunted Mansion in Disneyland, but you know, artsy.

Found through today and tomorrow

Bobby

Jay and Seth vs. The Apocalypse
June 14, 2008 | Categories: Films

I just came across this really funny looking trailer called Jay and Seth vs. The Apocalypse so I thought I’d share it with you all. The trailer features Jay Baruchel and Seth Rogen (those dudes from Knocked Up) who have to live together after the world has gone to shit and there are monsters running around. /film compares it to sort of a Shaun of the Dead-esque movie where you get a good mixture of zombies/monsters mixed with witty interactions between the characters.

What’s really funny is that they made the trailer for fun, and once it got out, studios actually wanted to make it, and it’s actually being made. Seth Rogen will be writing it with his Superbad co-writer Evan Goldberg and they’re currently looking for a director for the film. What do you think? I’m thinking it could be really great if done in a very tongue-in-cheek sort of way, but I guess we’ll see soon enough!

Bobby