The Crisis of Credit Visualized

February 22, 2011 by cogixo in visual pamphlets | Comments Off on The Crisis of Credit Visualized

[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.

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The Impossible Hamster

February 22, 2011 by cogixo in visual pamphlets | Comments Off on The Impossible Hamster

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sqwd_u6HkMo[/youtube]

Another analogy: The market with it’s need for constant growth as a hamster that ends up eating earth. It doesn’t really reference the idea behind the growing markets very much, so while it is very cute, I’m kinda missing something here and watching it leaves me a bit unsatisfied.

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The Story of Stuff

February 22, 2011 by cogixo in visual pamphlets | Comments Off on The Story of Stuff

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GorqroigqM[/youtube]

There’s a lot of people who just love The Story of Stuff. The way it’s talked about, you would think it’s the latest movie by the Cohen brothers – but better! I have to say, I find the presenter quite annoying. It’s just a bit too American for me, she sounds like a parody to me tbh.

So this one is using a presenter, interacting with some animation. The animation is fine, and I’m a fan of statistics. But this whole idea stands and falls with the viewer liking the presenter, and that’s a dangerous thing. Because part of the audience will always dislike the presenter, even if they are interested in the content or message of the film.

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RSAnimate – Crises of Capitalism

February 22, 2011 by cogixo in scrapbook, visual pamphlets | Comments Off on RSAnimate – Crises of Capitalism

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOP2V_np2c0[/youtube]

RSAnimate is a series of talks made into animations by adding drawings on a whiteboard. It’s an extremely well executed concepts, and I envy the artist’s drawing skills. Very simple concepts: take a talk and make drawings to illustrate what is being said and make it more engaging and entertaining. You should check out the other films from the series, if you haven’t seen them.

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You are terrorist

February 22, 2011 by cogixo in visual pamphlets | Comments Off on You are terrorist

[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.

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One-Minute Guide to Planet Earth

February 22, 2011 by cogixo in visual pamphlets | Comments Off on One-Minute Guide to Planet Earth

[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.

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The Big Brother State

February 21, 2011 by cogixo in visual pamphlets | Comments Off on The Big Brother State

[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.

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Visual Pamphlets

February 21, 2011 by cogixo in visual pamphlets | Comments Off on Visual Pamphlets

There 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.

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