My dear friend Taylor is out in the field in India working on a doc about the issue of genetically modified food there. Following the work of Navdanya, a women centred movement for the protection of biological and cultural diversity, she’s started a series of informative videos for the web. Check out her first post!
A great example of the use of media for social change. Go Taylor!
Since stepping out of college where life was such a hectic blur I couldn’t even tell you what movies were playing in the cinema that month, I’ve come to appreciate the little pockets of time I can now have with the TV as I cook my meals. I admit… I’ve developed a love for Supernanny, Ellen Degeneres and HGTV. But what I didn’t expect was developing the desire to recreate the various special effects that commercials were laden with. A question that often popped into my mind was “how’d they do that?” What sparked this fascination with motion graphics, i know not.
What I do know is that I shall teach myself to use After Effects beyond whatever basics i used for I Found A Tiny Starfish. First step… Kinetic Typography. A quick search on Youtube brought me enough examples (like this and this) to get my creative juices going. I love how easy it is to find video tutorials for almost anything online, just like this one by crookedgremlins.com:
Shall give it a shot while editing for Kartemquin the piece on the No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson sneak peek. We’ll see how it goes… :)
What factors do you consider when it comes to buying a new phone? Price? Functionality? Battery life? Well, here’s one more thing to consider on your next purchase – how responsibly produced it was. Thanks to Greenpeace, we now have a simple, colorful chart to determine just that!
Want more details? They’ve also compiled a great report giving scores to each company in things like ‘Amounts of renewable energy used’, ‘chemicals management’ and ‘energy efficiency of new models’. Read the full report in their guide-to-greener-electronics-14-edition.
Watching Lemonade was one of the most uplifting 35 minutes I’ve spent in a while. It’s an example of how media can truly be used to bring hope into our lives and be a shining beacon in life’s darkest moments. A timely movie for the current state of the economy and a great tool to help us see obstacles in our lives in a completely different light. The story was engaging and the shots looked beautiful. It’s definitely going to have an influence on the movies I make in the future.
I’m excited that filmmaker Eric Proulx will be talking to us and answering our questions at a free Chicago screening this Tuesday. Join me for the 6pm session or rsvp for the 8pm session. Otherwise, catch the movie on Hulu. :)
[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJltcT7DH7g&feature=player_embedded]
Thanks to Seth Godin for the recommendation!
Shuling Yong 