Director of Iron Man tours his sets

Too cool...

Iron Man - On the Set with Jon Favreau

Giant Amazonian water lily

This is a beautiful time-lapse/nature bit. I was tremendously inspired by it.

Giant Amazon Water Lily
by omurap666

Maya Deren

Maya Deren is a female avant garde filmmaker from the 40's and 50's. I don't like some of her work but there is one in particular that i found quite cutting edge for its time. "At Land" is a very creative surrealist film, perhaps a bit too out there for some, but I love how it was edited and shot. The dynamic camera, and the quick editing is quite ahead of its time. But more importantly it mazximizes the beauty of film - Editing.

Maya stars and directs in "At Land"

PART 1:



PART 2:

Tarsem Singh's "The Fall" - and surrealism

I'm looking forward to seeing "Iron Man" and "Indiana Jones" but I don't think either of these films will be even in the same league as Tarsem Singh's "The Fall."

The trailer alone is probably better than both films combined. Tarsem's last film "The Cell" was dark, beautiful, and surreal. I, being a sucker for good surrealism, fell instantly in love with "The Cell." But alas, after 8 years he has finally made a second film!

This brings me to the subject of surrealism. I am of the opinion that filmmakers have not fully explored the surrealist genre. "The Cell" is quite the masterpiece of course, and a great study in its capabilities, but we could go further. I think surrealism actually translates better in film than a painting. Why? Well, because that is how we dream, we dream in "shots," and moving images. Therefore with the magic of filmmaking, anything could be done.

The challenge of course is giving surrealism meaning, and rendering it intelligible. But probably the real reason the genre of surrealism hasn't peaked is because of its challenging nature, to conseive of a world, to create a world that is so different from anything we have ever seen before or after, is quite a daunting task and not for the faint of heart. This is where the true talent lies. Perhaps this is why it took Tarsem 8 years to make his second film?

Imagine if you were watching a film where the rules you know, were constantly broken, this is what made "The Matrix" so amazing, and why the second and third film flopped. We love to watch the rules of our world be broken, thats why we are entertained by magicians. Imagine a film that like a good magic trick left you wondering where, how, even when its going, one in which only the extraordinary is seen. That would make a spectacular film. That would make a film worth remembering.


Tarsem Singh's "The Fall"



One more surrealist film that would be interesting to watch, unfortunately it will never be distributed.
Drawing Restraint 9 - with Bjork

Creature Comforts

Every once in a while I run across something so brilliant I think "I wish I woulda thought of that!"
This is one of those instances...

A clip from Creature Comforts about self image. It's super creative and very funny.

Star Trek behind the scenes

Remember reading rainbow? They had a cool episode on the behind the scenes of Star Trek the next generation.
The director is such a nerd! And the special effects guy is totally cool for using razor blades!