I’m tempted to find out where to get that DVD
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTlmho_RovY[/youtube]
Read MoreHere is another video about the cuts, via Indymedia Bristol. While it is very interesting, sadly the talk is quite boring, and hard to not get distracted from. Visually it seems to be some kind of powerpoint presentation.
It’s well worth a watch though! Taking this content and actually making it into a film could be a very interesting start for a project. It’s got all the content, only needs some scripting and working on voiceover, pacing and visuals.
Read More[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3mw49mk_x0[/youtube]
And while I’m rendering the last clip of the day, here goes the best youtube video ever. It doesn’t quite fit in the general theme, but it’s way awesome.
The story has it that this is a real commercial, but was dubbed by an unknown worker at the recording studio. The tapes were discovered years later, and noone knows who came up with the best voice over for a union spot ever.
If anyone knows anything about this clip or how it ended up on youtube, let us know in the comments.
Read More[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bx_LWm6_6tA[/youtube]
This one is trying to do what’s on the cover. The sound works really well, I’m not a fan of the colours, but that’s not really the point here. It works heavily with titles, and is well paced. More an attempt to explain very concretely what triggered this specific crisis (and very focused on the States), not so much trying to explain the general concept of capitalism. It works well though, and I actually do get the impression I’m learning something when watching. Although for some reason I don’t fully trust it.
Read More[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdIA0jeW-24[/youtube]
Another German one, but this one comes with subtitles.
It’s very straight forward, not really dealing with anything too abstract. The graphics are working very well, nice and clean looking. The most notable point is the voiceover, explaining in a creepily hypnotic tone why all the surveillance is necessary and ho everyone is a terrorism suspect nowadays. Obviously, this perspective of pretending to be in favor of surveillance is the main device that makes this video work.
Read More[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Eph6ClpGOQ[/youtube]
This video was a uni project. In our first term at film school, we got the brief to create a one minute video, about where we come from. The title of that project was Place. Years later, I still remember Armen’s One-Minute Guide to Planet Earth. The imagery is very evocative, going far beyond the mundane explanations. Here voice over and visuals create something more than the sum of the individual parts. The short, fast paced clip triggers a wave of associations and ideas each time I see it.
A fun to watch clip, which kinda explains things almost by raising questions rather than answering them. I like the attitude, it’s not very serious, but brings up a very interesting perspective. Also taking a step back and getting a fresh perspective on the everyday.
Read More[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJTLL1UjvfU[/youtube]
The Big Brother State is a very well made video, explaining the use and dangers of cctv and other surveillance tools. Sadly the website at http://www.bigbrotherstate.com/ seems to not exist anymore.
It summarises the arguments for surveillance and then goes on point out some of the downsides. Visually it is very appealing, the pink and grey aesthetics are easy on the eye, the little bombs and hearts visually represent abstract concepts and ideas and make them more tangible, without making them too concrete. The pink ‘wallpaper’ background is a bit sickly sweet, but adds a self ironic element, which counteracts the somewhat dry and depressing subject matter.
It is made from a mix of footage of real people, 3D and 2D animation, creating a well paced, informative and entertaining little video.
Read MoreThere are those ideas for projects that would be great to make, they keep nagging in the background, but there’s always something else happening and you never really get around to tackling them head on.
The idea to make short films about political key concepts is one of them. It first popped up during the Anarchist Bookfair in 2010. (Check out the Virtual Anarchist Bookfair over at Imc London.) We were chatting about how difficult it can be to communicate political ideas, especially more abstract concepts to a wider ‘audience’ (for lack of a better expression). Since the crisis, we keep reading about the market, the free market, debt, and the economy in general. But very few people (me included) actually have a firm grasp on what those terms mean. Even though they are affecting our daily lives very directly, they seem very distant concepts. Of course we are constantly told that we could not expect to understand things, and we should leave them to specialists. To make matters worse, these are the very same “specialists” who triggered the whole crisis. Being specialists and all.
Read More