MTV Buzz: avant-garde television
"Buzz is a long forgotten MTV experiment from 1990. In 1988, Mark Pellington developed an idea for a non-linear collage program he called "Buzz". Created in partnership with MTV Europe producer/director Jon Klein, Buzz was an ambitious 13-part global series commissioned by MTV and channel 4 (UK). It was hailed by critics as ground-breaking, adventurous television. This is episode 1 of the 4 episodes that have managed to survive on an old VHS tape to be digitized for your edification in this modern, digital age."
(Black Flag Party, YouTube Channel)
Fig.1 Buzz Episode 01 Segment 01
Fig.2 Buzz Episode 01 Segment 02
Fig.3 Buzz Episode 01 Segment 03
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Simon PerkinsSHARE
SMS Sugar Man: the first feature film shot entirely on a cell phone
"Aryan Kaganof's SMS Sugar Man has either the dubious or celebratory distinction - depending on your point of view of these kinds of things - of being the first feature film shot entirely on a cell phone, specifically the Sony Ericsson W900i. Given the film's strong sexual content, Sony probably won't be championing the film any time soon. But, in their absence, I will.
To Kaganof's grand credit, the technique in which the film was shot never comes across as being gimmicky. The majority of the movie is shot as any traditional movie is shot despite the unique camera being used. Every once in awhile we do get a direct POV shot from one of the characters holding his or her own camera, but this is used very sparingly and is thus unobtrusive.
Scenes are mostly lit and executed as if filmed with a traditional camera. What's most surprising about the movie is that one might presuppose - or, at least I did - that it would be comprised of mostly quick cuts. I don't own a cell phone with a camera, but I had assumed one of them could only hold small files for short scenes. Against expectation, Kaganof comprises SMS Sugar Man with fairly longish shots and gives the film a very lyrical tempo."
(Mike Everleth, 17 November 2008)
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Simon PerkinsSHARE
There was relatively little divide between spectator and performer in the archaic theatre
"In the archaic theatre there was relatively little divide between spectator and performer, seeing and doing; people danced and spoke, then retired to a stone seat to watch others dance and declaim. By the time of Aristotle, actors and dancers had become a caste with special skills of costuming, speaking, and moving. Audiences stayed offstage, and so developed their own skills of interpretation as spectators. As critics, the audience sought to speculate then about what the stage-characters did not understand about themselves (though the chorus on stage sometimes also took on this clarifying role)."
(Richard Sennett, 2008, p.125)
Sennett, R. (2008). The Craftsman. London, Penguin Books.
Fig.1 Lysistrata Summer 2006 University of Florida
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Simon PerkinsSHARE
Best Buy trying to fire employee over iPhone4 vs HTC Evo videos
"By now it seems like just about everyone has seen the iPhone 4 vs. HTC EVO video (and the rebuttal video). The video portrays an electronics store employee trying to convince a person looking for an iPhone 4 to buy an HTC EVO 4G instead. It's hilarious - like all good humor, so funny because it's at least partially true. But you know who didn't find it funny? Best Buy. How do I know that? Because they're trying to fire the kid who made it.
The video in question was made by Brian Maupin, a 25-year-old based in Kansas City, Missouri. For the past three and a half years he's been working at Best Buy selling mobile phones. He's probably not going to be doing that anymore as Best Buy has suspended him indefinitely and is currently taking the steps to terminate him, Maupin tells us. The reason? The video.
The video became so popular (it currently has nearly 1.3 million views on YouTube) that someone at Best Buy corporate saw it. They then put two-and-two together that it was an employee at one of their stores that made it, and the hammer came down. 'They felt it disparaged a brand they carried (iPhone/Apple) as well as the store itself and were fearful of stockholders & customers being turned off to Best Buy Mobile,' Maupin says."
(MG Siegler, TechCrunch, 1 July 2010)
Fig.1 Tiny Watch Productions, 2010. 'iPhone4 vs HTC Evo'.
Fig.2 Tiny Watch Productions, 2010. 'HTC EVO vs iPhone4'.
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Simon PerkinsSHARE
Xtranormal: Text-to-Movie authoring tool
"xtranormal's mission is to bring movie-making to the people. Everyone watches movies and we believe everyone can make movies. Movie-making, short and long, online and on-screen, private and public, will be the most important communications process of the 21st century.
Our revolutionary approach to movie-making builds on an almost universally held skill-typing. You type something; we turn it into a movie. On the web and on the desktop."
(Xtranormal)
[The Xtranormal Text-to-Movie authoring tool allows you to produce short films. It does so through adding your typed dialogue (in the form of 'text to speech') to supplied animated character assets.]
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Simon PerkinsSHARE
