Perhaps your school year has already wound down or maybe you’re just about there. Here’s a brief post to share an artist with whom you may already be familiar — and if not, I think you are in for a treat because I believe he is one of the most dynamic multi-media presences of the past few years: Stromae. He is first and foremost a musical artist, but the place of visual expression in his output is key to his message and to his success, like many performers today. I recommend these videos because of their extremely high degree of thematic force and visual impact. There is a total command of motion picture language throughout the work he creates with his collaborators, from the animation of Carmen (by Triplettes de Belleville director Sylvain Chomet) to the art direction of Papaoutai to the cinéma vérité tour-de-force of Formidable (with a song that is profoundly reminiscent of Belgian icon Jacques Brel, who was also a multi-media giant) to Tous les Mêmes, which brings most of thèse qualities together in its eye-popping, thought-provoking glory. And like many artists today, Stromae needs to be pretty good at self-deprecation, which is quite apparent in his very funny (for those who understand French) video alongside French comic Jamel demonstrating the mock creation of his first mega-hit Alors on Danse. And the original video to that one too — Alors on Danse — is stunningly original, particularly alongside standard music videos, rap or otherwise.
Archive for May, 2015
End of the Year Inspirations: Stromae
Posted in Chapter 5, Music & Sound Design, tagged Alors on danse, Carmen, Formidable, Papaoutai, Stromae, Sylvain Chomet, Tous les memes on May 31, 2015| 1 Comment »
VFX and the Art & Business of Moving Images: A Visit with Greg Butler, Part 2
Posted in Chapter 8, Visual Effects, tagged American Sniper, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Gollum, Greg Butler, Jersey Boys, MPC visual effects, The Lord of the Rings, Tomorrowland on May 25, 2015| 1 Comment »
In an earlier visit with visual effects supervisor and current head of vfx at MPC Vancouver Greg Butler, he shared perspectives on the art and business of moviemaking. At a moment when screens are flooded with summer blockbusters that are dependent on obviously CG action scenes, such as Avengers: Age of Ultron and Tomorrowland, Greg Butler’s most recent project as a visual effects supervisor on American Sniper provides very interesting perspectives on one of the most important objectives of a great deal of the effects work in today’s movies: to enhance or significantly fill in visual information from what was created and captured during principal photography in ways so that it is invisible.
Here is a link to a full interview with Greg Butler about his work on American Sniper to understand the degree to which Clint Eastwood’s movie is completely dependent on CG in order to create the world of its story. Butler had previously worked with Eastwood on the director’s period musical Jersey Boys. You can also check out earlier discussion of invisible effects in the earlier Close-Up interview in which Greg Butler discusses his work on Amazing Grace, among other projects.
Homemade Visual Effects with Greg Butler
Of course, Butler has also helped to craft some of the most compelling fantastical and imaginative worlds and characters in recent years, including groundbreaking work on both The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter series. Discussing one point in the creation of Gollum that illustrates the attention to detail that one must show in this work, he commented, “In the CG model setup, there was an invisible sphere behind Gollum’s eyelid that meant that whenever his cornea moved, the skin would bulge out in a realistic way. This is the one time we got to use it because he was sleeping with his eyes closed, and his eyes moved as if he was having a bad dream. We were proud of the fact that we got to use this technique. These were the sort of subtle nuances we were seeking out to bring him to life. We want you to be completely in the movie.” And that is the case whether you are conscious of the VFX being present or not — or if the filmmakers want you to know that they are present or not.
As one last comment on the “Art & Business of Moving Images” that goes back to Part 1, in our visit Butler shared perspectives that students do not often think about: the day-to-day life of working on the movie industry. He comments, “If you’re interested in working in film, your choices in life become limited – unless you find an interesting avenue that occasionally people are able to find – you’re either going to end up living in the L.A. area, or you’re going to be a nomad… in terms of developing movies, the dealmaking is all L.A. In terms of making movies, it’s L.A., but all around the world. You’re on a constant road show, touring band, carnival ride, living on a film set. And you have to live that. Maybe it’s okay when you’re in your twenties, but it’s something to consider. When it comes to post-production, visual effect, sound editing – your options open up a bit more: L.A. is still the center, but it’s broken down now, and there’s still lots of other places, like New York, London, Vancouver. And that is continuing to evolve. In fact, my company, MPC, is now opening up a new division in Montreal.”
Communicating the Product: Advertising Media, Part 2
Posted in Chapter 3, Media Literacy, tagged Advertising Media Literacy, Brooke Marine, Josh Weltman, Kevin Goff, Mad Men, Matt Weiner, Saul Bass on May 13, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Capturing Style – and getting the period right
How to seduce the viewer, the consumer, the public? A show that has explored that driving question in very powerful, incisive, and grownup ways has been the series Mad Men, which is reaching its final episode in just a few days. This article by Brooke Marine from Vulture features the work of co-producer Josh Weltman, who was brought on board Mad Men by creator and showrunner Matt Weiner to create fictional period-appropriate advertising for protagonist adman Don Draper.
The challenges presented by commercial work have been explored in Moving Images and in previous posts on this blog, including an appreciation of Saul Bass and the close-up interview with Kevin Goff, creator of the 2015 Esurance ad featuring the Breaking Bad Walter White character and McDonald’s “Mom vs. Dad” and “The Last Fry,” among others. Besides “seducing strangers,” as Josh Weltman puts it, how about simply keeping the attention of teenagers or college students? That’s the enormous challenge faced by any young filmmakers creating ads or PSAs for high school or university contexts. It’s also a tall order that can help any young adpeople to hone their communications skills for some of the toughest audiences imaginable. And this helps all students to understand and critique the media messages that they face every day.
mediateacherdotnet 