Font Awesome Kick Starter Video

Guy walking and talking about a new product. Pretty solid and quite enjoyable.

Trump Facts

http://www.allthetrumpfacts.com/#facts

Cool Concept Video

We always talk about little concept videos. We all agree they look fun and they have a good mix of message and technical function. However we also know how much pre production and testing it can take to make something like this, and in the end does it always serve the purpose in the best way or was it just a cool concept. Anyways enjoy. If anything I think the pen technology is cool on a small scale.

HarmonQuest

Koelsch passed this one along in an email. HarmonQuest is D&D (actually it's Pathfinder) played in front of a live studio audience, with guest role players, and animated scenes. We've seen similar content from Nerdist like D&D with Vin Diesel and Force Grey with Chris Hardwick but the animated scenes and not-taking-yourself-too-seriously humor obligated me to blitz through the first season in one day.

What Happens At The Edge Of The Universe? | Space Time | PBS Digital Studios

Pretty cool example of how to explain things using an on screen narrator.

Clams Casino

Technique has been around or a year but a cool application non the less. I could see an 'evolution' concept piece being made from this

A Sci-Fi Movie Written by a Computer

This article will have much more information about how and why they did this. But the movie is something special.

Have to get the perfect shot

This is a funny one. Some school friends and I agreed we have either done/said or heard all of these things on set before. How about you?

Swiss Army Man

A Fox in Space

Jason Allen Ashlock - The Story Teller's Secret

A capture of my favorite talk at SXSW. It borrows heavily from Josh's earlier post on story arcs, but positions story well as to why we use it and how its so convincing to change people's minds and behaviors.

The guys from Scotland that I worked with last year put this up online today. I think they are trying really hard to get their name out especially in the midwest advertising market but it made me thing of the Story and Heart stuff. I have been part of several conversations about making videos like this. Root could put out content about how we do what we do and in my mind specifically about how and why we tell stories with video. I think this and Story and Heart show that there is a space out there for these videos.
Washington, D.C. Conference Feb 2016 from Enterprise Screen on Vimeo.

The Irrational Fear of Nothing

I was catching up on some of my "watch laters" on Vimeo and came across this really interesting piece. I bring it up because in the past we've recreated the "Being John Malkovich" effect in order to illustrate an experience or point-of-view, but something about the disorienting quality of the (backwards) body rig is fun. I think what I like best about it is it's simplicity - just dude walking around with a well-written narration.

From what I can gather, this film was created to promote the Olympus E-M5 Mark II and part of the Olympus: Point of View Series.

The Irrational Fear of Nothing from Paul Trillo on Vimeo.

Behind the scenes -The Irrational Fear of Nothing from Paul Trillo on Vimeo.

I’M AN EXPERT HAGGLER AT GARAGE SALES

I wanted to highlight this video for a few reasons.

The first reason is because the story illustrates a humorous relationship between a seller and a buyer - something that we could leverage for client work e.g. Petco, American Airlines, etc.

The second reason is because it is based on a short story that was featured on this website, McSweeny's Internet Tendency. And while I understand that it's a blog run by a publishing company based in San Francisco, I'm not entirely certain if it's designed to be "open source" as it relates to scripted material - it'd be cool it was though...

In addition to the 50-Hour challenges, I'm also reminded of the book Micah inherited on a flight titled White Cargo, and how we had once talked about a kind of competition or exercise where you would flip to a random page in a random book and attempt to recreate a scene using only the available context.

I’M AN EXPERT HAGGLER AT GARAGE SALES from holycowboy on Vimeo.

Virgin America's Safety Video - How a Low Budget Breeds Innovation

Jon Chu, director of GI Joe: Retaliation and Justin Bieber: Never Say Never, recently updated Virgin America's pre-flight safety video. Virgin's old video is often credited for starting the arms race of fun and light-hearted safety videos. This story describes about how he worked around tight restrictions and a low budget. For example, Virgin America didn't even provide a plane or uniforms - likewise, the FAA isn't too keen on rhymes.

I wanted to share this because we are no strangers to tight budgets, timelines, or restrictions. And, how ultimately, those sorts of parameters can yield some pretty unique results.

Android: Rock, Paper, Scissors

Wintergatan - Marble Machine (music instrument using 2000 marbles)

Lord Of The Rings: How Music Elevates Story

SHINY

Miniatur Wunderland *** official video *** largest model railway / railroad of the world

Lurpak | Lightest

This is just sweet.

Lurpak - Lightest from Blink on Vimeo.

John Lewis | The Long Wait

Simple story, great execution, warm feels.

John Lewis - The Long Wait from Blink on Vimeo.

White God

Trailer for the film my friend's couldn't stomach. I thought it was pretty awesome though.

Cool Doc. Style Part 2

Hey guys here is another one! I am getting really pumped about this style of storytelling and if the last one was cool from a style standpoint this one is cool because it answers a lot of questions we have been talking about. I think it is style agnostic or at least looks topical. They also use video in it in a really cool and interactive way. Finally it is a totally inspirational story and really gets you thinking.

Looking forward to trying this in something
The Fiction of the Science: Robert Wong (Future of StoryTelling 2013) from Mixtape Club on Vimeo.

Anyone Can Quantum

We all love short story telling. Dragon

As the 50 hour comes closer and we talk about keeping it simple vs. going all out I thought this short has a lot to it. It is short without leaving you wanting more, it has a nice setup and punchline, and you don't have to see the dragon to get the message. I think these are all elements we should think about when writing our story.



Dragon from Gulliver Moore on Vimeo.

Art-List.io & Musicbed Vintage

Over the past few years, we've patronized a few different royalty free music services. Just to add fuel to the fire, here are two new developments in the world of music for film...

Art-List.io is offering unlimited royalty-free tracks for an annual subscription of $199. I don't know about you but I feel like I've definitely spent two hundred bones on music just in the past few months.

Art-list - Inspiring Music For Your Films from Art-list.io on Vimeo.

And more good news from the Musicbed. They've successfully collaborated with Sun Records and you can now license music from artists like Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, and Jerry Lee Lewis starting at $49.

Making Music More Accessible from Musicbed on Vimeo.

Best Music Videos of 2015

Fubiz, a french art inspiration blog I frequent posted their favorite music videos of 2015.

Why Props Matter

On the topic of the upcoming 50-Hour Challenge and the importance of props; not just including them but really making them a part of the story...

Why Props Matter from Rishi Kaneria on Vimeo.

"Raiders" Story Conference Script

I heard by by way of a podcast that there is a transcribed PDF of a 1978 taped conversation between George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and Lawrence Kasdan about the story, plot, characters in Raiders of the lost Ark. Admittedly, I haven't made it through the whole thing - it's about 90 pages long. But, so far, it's really interesting to hear the three filmmakers create a character out of thin air, talk about the beats that are necessary for an action film like Raiders, and just how they collaborate in general.

And just because it's The Stew, here's the theatrical trailer from '81.

Killing Kennedy

I recently had an opportunity to help consult on a music video for a buddy of mine. He's a photographer by trade and he was describing the setup they had for a scene that takes place at night in the woods - they had everything from four generators, a handful of 2K fresnel lights, a 12'x 12' silk, and a bunch of other really fun gear to make it happen.

The whole thing got me thinking about how relatively "light" we roll sometimes. That's not meant to be self-deprecating - I know we do what we do for very specific reasons. It also brought to mind this promo piece created for the History Channel by Variable, Killing Kennedy. It kind of blew me away to see just how much work went into this little 00:47 promo. For example, the attention to detail (they shot all the "home movie" scenes using actual film that should have expired in the 60's), the otherwise spartan set (basically a backdrop and a motorcade), and just the way everything was cut together in reverse from Lee Harvey Oswald's point of view really captured my attention.

Killing Kennedy from Variable on Vimeo.

Killing Kennedy - Behind the Scenes from Variable on Vimeo.

AWAY

The other day Wegman and I were talking about the use of VFX in Dead Dixie California, the film he's been working on for the past year or so. Specifically, the almost unreal amount of planning that's required to pull off even the most basic effects. Ultimately, the conversation reminded me of this piece from Convolv, AWAY.

Aside from the really great FX, there's a really good story behind the production. Basically, the two filmmakers were going into the project completely blind and with very little experience. You can read the full story here.

AWAY Official Trailer from Convolv on Vimeo.

AWAY VFX Breakdown from Convolv on Vimeo.

Inside Llewyn Davis - Please Mr. Kennedy

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