another new regular feature for my blog: movie stills. one of the biggest things that attracts me to a film is the cinematography. i can sit and watch a film that would ordinarily be 'boring' and love it for the camera work. when i studied film at university i remember coming across a comment that in the great movies you can take an individual frame, and composition and lighting-wise it will stand up as an image by itself.
often when i'm watching a dvd on my computer i'll see a shot that i particularly love and the photographer part of my brain tells me to press "c" to capture the image using the dvd software's in-built capture feature.
over the last couple of years i've gathered quite a nice little collection of movie stills on my computer, so i thought it might be cool to start posting some of them on the blog. the range of movies is very wide - from established 'classics' to more recent films. occasionally i might even post an image from a film that i have forgotten the title of....
so here goes - movie still 1: 'noi the albino', and actually this film is too beautiful to post just one image...
to quote the late great obi wan kenobi, mos eisley is a "wretched hive of scum and villainy". situated on the planet tatooine, legend has it that it became the capital of the planet when jabba the hutt moved part of his crime empire there (source: wikipedia).
in the town of mos eisley is a rather infamous bar called the mos eisley cantina which has a house band called figrin d'an and the modal nodes.
we all know that it is not a very nice place because we have witnessed firsthand how han, luke and obi wan got on when they visited. the mos eisley cantina is full of drunkenness and general debauchery. what better place to set a drink drive commercial in then?
click on the link below and see a public service announcement from 1979 in which a caring member of the mos eisley community helps out a drunk buddy... and let it be a lesson to you!
here's another potentially regular slot - let's call it 'something cool'. that title can be like 'ironic' because we all know that a blog slot that was truly cool would never call itself 'something cool'. dig?
so here's something cool: the band 'tilly and the wall'.
what makes them cool: they are an indie band that has a tap dancer instead of a drummer. the story goes that they were missing a drummer and had this friend who was a tap dancer so they asked her in to tap some rhythms for them to practise to. they thought it sounded so good that they added her to the line-up. so now, when you go to a tilly and the wall concert, on the riser behind the band is a tap dancer instead of a drummer.
you think that sounds a little bit naff? well it is potentially but listen for yourself... at betterpropaganda the song 'pot kettle black' has serious attitude (don't blame me, it has a bit of bad language).
yeah! in yer eye george lucas! i managed to produce VII episodes of my franchise! and it really wasn't that hard.
now, on star wars news: news from the dark nether regions of star wars fandom i do bang on a fair bit about stormtroopers. it's because, despite the fact that they work for the dark side, they're cool.
so anyway, today i got wind of a cool-sounding project by eight illustrators paying tribute to star wars by interpreting elements of the original movies in their own way. the book is called 'harvest is when i need you the most'. (a reference to uncle owen's impassioned speech to luke near the beginning of the first star wars movie - but you already knew that.) i found out about the book on drawn and you can see the book website for yourself here.
this particular frame (by branden d lamb) took my fancy. damn ewoks...
this episode was brought to you in association with the quote: “aren’t you a little short for a stormtrooper?” - princess leia
i've been meaning to tell you all about anna's new jewellery range. and i fully intend to - i'll do a big post on it soon. in her hunting around for cool stuff to put on the end of a chain, anna came across a rather fantastic black viewmaster on trademe.
so we bought it. it's a 1950s model (i think) manufactured in belgium (yes belgium of all places), we think it's made of bakelite which makes it even cooler. it is nice and heavy and has a serious industrial-feeling mechanism. it came with its original box!
i've become very aware in recent days that there's something that star wars news (news from the dark nether regions of star wars fandom) lacks: hot celebrity gossip. cutsy pictures of stormtroopers are all very well, but what this news series needs is something with a bit more bite.
right on cue comes this excellent and exciting news piece.
it turns out that george lucas's daughter, amanda, quietly slipped into new zealand last week. all true star wars fans will know that "Amanda has ... made an impact on the big screen, appearing in the most recent Star Wars trilogy. She was dancer Diva Funquita and the voice of Trade Federation battleship communications officer Tey How in Episode I The Phantom Menace, Outlander Club patron Adnama (Amanda spelled backwards) in Episode II Attack of the Clones, and Senator Terr Taneel in Episode III Revenge of the Sith." i can't believe you didn't know that.
but here's the really awesome bit. she came to new zealand to fight in a mixed martial arts event called 'princesses of pain'.
just because she's the daughter of someone famous, doesn't mean she gets treated any differently. 'princesses of pain' promoter (that's a lot of alliteration) belinda dunne says, "Within her team-mates, none of them really give a crap (about her links to fame)."
wearing a shirt with the catchy phrase 'fightchix' on it, amanda 'powerhouse' lucas fought against nz kickboxer nicole kavanagh who, by the look of this picture, managed to inflict a certain amount of damage.
my mate johnnie b has been trying to get close to george lucas for years. if only we had known that george's daughter was visiting maybe we could have set up a date or something. unfortunately john is in the uk at the moment, and as it turns out amanda 'powerhouse' lucas's "American bodybuilder fiancee" might have had something to say about it.
this episode of star wars news was brought to you in association with the following dialogue:
[a large-eyed creature gives Luke a rough shove and starts yelling at Luke in an alien language which Luke doesn't understand...]
Dr. Evazan: He doesn't like you. Luke: Sorry. Dr. Evazan: I don't like you either. You just watch yourself. We're wanted men. I have the death sentence on twelve systems. Luke: I'll be careful. Dr. Evazan: You'll be dead!
i once read a book called 'ss-gb' by len deighton - a novel about what it might have been like if the nazis had occupied great britain in WW2. in particular, it is about a british police detective working in the london police force after it has become answerable to the german ss.
well, that's all fine and dandy, but what if great britain had been conquered by the empire? what then eh? i think this picture gives us a bit of an insight into that situation. clearly the empire's stormtroopers (more heavily armed and equipped, not to mention backed by the entire authority of the empire) have the bill exactly where they want them.
the original of this pic is here and i first saw it on boingboing.
this episode of star wars news: news from the dark nether regions of star wars fandom was brought to you in association with the quote: "i'd prefer a straight fight instead of all this sneaking around" - han solo.
star wars news: news from the dark nether regions of star wars fandom, or in this case from the dark side of the force.
the empire really had their systems and government structures together, a pretty well oiled machine.
today we have a rather interesting artefact from the imperial economic system - bank notes used as currency throughout the empire during the time of the rebellion.
these bank notes were designed by one j. scott campbell (aka diablo2003) (also happens to be an artist for marvel). i came across them on ffffound image bookmarking, but they were originally posted on deviantART. the blurb on deviantART says that j. scott designed them as a guest artist at a star wars fan day. read more about the bank notes here and more about j. scott campbell here.
this episode is brought to you in association with the quote "i find your lack of faith disturbing" - darth vader
i sent this link last week to a few friends, but it was one of the inspirations for star wars news: news from the dark nether regions of star wars fandom, so it needs to be shared.
a flickr user (one Doctor Beef) has taken to documenting the secret lives of stormtroopers. the flickr slide show is here. but here's my favourite pic [sometimes you see a photo and think, 'damn i wish i'd taken that photo' - this is one] and the Doctor Beef caption that goes with it...
The guys insisted we stop at the beach so they could see the lake, then got mad when they discovered it was frozen over and we put them out on the ice.
"We're not Snowtroopers," said TK-327. "BRRRR" was all I could hear from TK-704. "It was HIS idea to come out here, not mine," shouts an accusatory TK-218. TK-315 wasn't so bothered - he'd filled his mug with hot coffee from Teolly's cuppa before we got out of the car.
this episode was brought to you in association with the quote: "you could use a good kiss" - han solo.
i'm sick - i've got a head cold thing. strangely, when i've got a cold sometimes i get more creative - it's almost as if the cold creates a kind of insulation against extraneous data and my mind settles into its natural tendency (ie to make things). or something like that anyway. a similar effect is the half awake zone as you drift off to sleep. or when you get away from work and have a proper holiday - inevitably the things you love doing most come to the front of your mind.
anyway, a few days ago i was doodling and came across an interesting little character, which i refined over the last few days and practised as i watched dvds (ken burns's documentary series on jazz). today i finally drew a version that i was happy with (he's a bit random the way he comes out on paper when you draw him freehand). so i scanned him into the computer and cleaned him up.
here's the little blighter now:
he's designed to be drawn quite quickly with just a few strokes. it's amazing how much he and his brothers change their attitudes and stature as they randomly appear on the page.
this version has been put through illustrator's live trace 'inked drawing' process and then tidied up a bit.
i'm wondering if subconsciously his rather rotund little figure is influenced by louis armstrong and charlie parker.
chur little bro.
on the headphones: 'crosstown traffic' by jimi hendrix from the album 'experience hendrix'.
hello, and welcome to the second episode of star wars news: news from the dark nether regions of star wars fandom.
most people assume that the star wars movie that came out in 1977 was the first one (even though it was actually episode IV). in fact, thanks to recent film research, a much older version of star wars has been unearthed, dating back to the silent film era.
youtube is the world authority on rare and hard to find film, and so now, for your viewing pleasure, the original star wars movie (unearthed by neonstz):
this episode of star wars news brought to you in association with the quote: "help me obi wan kenobi, you're my only hope." - princess leia
a bit about me and star wars: i was released the same year as star wars - 1977. when i say 'released' i mean 'born'. my older brothers (10 and 12 years older) were into star wars and i grew up with it.
when my brother rob went on his oe to europe he came back with a range of fantastic star wars toys for me, including a speeder bike, x-wing fighter and a laser canon. one of my friends ben was also into star wars in a big way and we had epic games with our star wars figures and vehicles. he had a millennium falcon and an at-st walker. when we got to be 11 or 12, ben went off star wars and agreed to sell me his at-st walker for $10. i'm still the proud owner of that walker - albeit slightly guilty as i know ben has regretted the transaction in later years.
needless to say, i love all the original star wars films and saw return of the jedi when it first came out at the movies (plus a couple of ewok movies but we choose not to discuss those). i am deeply ambivalent about the newer star wars movies and lay much of the blame at the feet of george lucas's poor dialogue writing abilities. the dialogue of the first three movies was saved by harrison ford.
i welcome and embrace your own comments about stars wars and your personal recollections.
and now for star wars news episode I: so in view of my star wars fascination (and i should say i'm not one of those guys who dresses up and goes to conventions - although one day i would like to own a stormtrooper helmet) i come across quite a bit of star wars ephemera on the net and most of it is just too good not to share.
in this video, two members of the 'jedi faith church' of holyhead in the uk are attacked by a drunk guy wearing a black plastic bag, wielding a crutch and yelling "darth vader!" and, in what is possibly the most namby-pamby jedi moment since luke skywalker sulked about going to town to get some power converters when his aunt and uncle wanted him to do chores, the jedi cameraman upon being hit with the crutch says, "ahh, that's really quite painful." http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/north_west/7398202.stm
just a few days after ed hillary died, another important nzer has passed away. hone tuwhare wasn't as famous as ed, but he played an important part in nz literary history. he was a well-loved nz poet - accessible, witty and insightful. in 1964 he published 'no ordinary sun' - the first published full book of poetry by a maori written in english. it remains in print and is in it's 10th impression. he was also known for his collaborations with visual artist ralph hotere.
one of his best known poems is this one:
Rain I can hear you making small holes in the silence rain
If I were deaf the pores of my skin would open to you and shut
And I should know you by the lick of you if I were blind
the something special smell of you when the sun cakes the ground
the steady drum-roll sound you make when the wind drops
But if I should not hear smell or feel or see you
you would still define me disperse me wash over me rain
i was just out delivering some work and noticed that the flag at tauranga airport was at half-mast. and then i noticed another one further on that was the same. i thought, "who would warrant that kind of respect?" and my first thought was "sir ed hillary". sadly, when i came home to check, it turns out that it was in fact ed hillary who passed away today.
ed hillary was easily the most famous new zealander alive - he and nepalese sherpa tenzing norgay were the first people to reach the summit of mt everest. or as he put it "we knocked the bastard off". he came to personify the typical kiwi bloke - no fuss, just get the job done sort of attitude.
he was an all-round adventurer and travelled to the north and south poles - the first man to achieve the everest, south pole, north pole trifecta. he was also a humanitarian, tirelessly working for the nepalese people. tragically, nepal claimed the lives of his wife and daughter in a plane crash in 1975.
it's sad that he's passed away - it's a loss for new zealand. at 88 he had a good innings, and will always be considered a legend.
this morning i watched a biopic on jackson pollock starring ed harris. it was a pretty good film. i can never watch a movie about art without wanting to do something of my own. ever since taking pictures in alleyways in town a few days ago, i've had multiple ideas firing around in my head about how to use them.
watching the pollock film gave me the idea to just get on with it and see what emerges. i decided to start work on an idea i've had for several weeks. like the last piece i did (the plastic stag one) it was a long-term idea that really evolved when i started playing with the elements.
it incorporates the following elements: one of my alleyway photos, my standard artwork of me (blindfolded and degraded), an image of blue sky over the suburb of bureta, the safe little world brand, and as a little bonus, a map of tauranga (bureta to central city) that covers the area where the alley is, taken from the perspective of where the blue sky is.
on the headphones: 'thou shalt always kill' by dan le sac VS scroobius pip. check it (you won't regret it).
well, here we are on the verge of 2008. i've just been on a nice little road trip / work trip with lance that included a stay at my brother's holiday house north of auckland. very cool.
anyway, the intention - like last year - is to get some creative projects finished during my work holidays. that includes (somewhat dauntingly) a revamp of my website. it also includes realising some concepts i've had in mind for some time for visual pieces.
i'm working on a series (long-term) that incorporates grid designs done on my etch-a-sketch. today i finished the second of these pieces - 'plastic stag'. it's satisfying to complete this, because the idea for this particular image began to emerge very early this year when i took the background image at a music team retreat in the country.
here's the finished piece:
i'm immensely pleased with the final result as it truly incorporates all the aesthetic elements i like - the etch-a grid, iconography, text and photography. the photography itself has good colours and subject matter (i like switches and plastic forms). the text reads "plastic stag [bagged and mounted by a plastic huntsman]. barometer rising. safe little world."
meanwhile, to provide more background material for these pieces i fulfilled another long-term idea to go into town when it was quiet in the evenings and get some pictures of urban walls. the lighting was great and as well as the walls i was thinking of, i also found a few more nice ones. i had my work camera (a sony fixed lens that provides 10.3 mp images) at home so i used that.
here are a couple of examples:
so that's about the sum for now. happy new year - hope it's a good one.
on the headphones: 'rain' by fat freddy's drop, from the album 'live at the matterhorn'.
please have a look at this little video. it's called 'the story of stuff' and it is an excellent summary of the whole consumerism, global economy thing and its inherent problems. the presenter talks to you a bit like a primary school teacher, but it's worth watching anyway (cool animation graphics).
here is the first part (5 minutes). the whole thing is 20 minutes long and you can watch it at www.storyofstuff.com
the workload i used to have and which i once thought was full-on now seems like something of a holiday since taking on quite a bit of extra work a few months ago. it's been good, but i'm definitely looking forward to a nice break and a chance to do some non-commercial creative projects (like getting safelittleworld.co.nz up and running and doing some more artworks).
in the midst of all my busy work (which has also included editing, designing and releasing a new castle publishing book, completing work on the typesetting of a book for the salvation army, creating issue 3 of abb engineering's bimonthly product update, and various work for HOTmilk), here are a couple of quite nice looking projects that i've worked on in the last month or so...
reservegroup b&b website
this was my first project for my new web photojournalism job. i wrote all the content and took a lot of the photos for this b&b establishment. the guys at reservegroup did a beautiful job of the design. my first project went live a week or so ago.
a screenshot of the front page (have a nosey at the whole site here):
expanse christmas card
another cool project i worked on was a christmas card for my friend alex, who operates a town planning consultancy called 'expanse'. the brief was to create a card to communicate that expanse had purchased a dairy cow through world vision's 'gifts of hope' programme.
the first step was to create this hand-drawn / hand-painted cow (which i did with some reference photos, photoshop and my wacom tablet):
i then overlaid it on a stock photo of a city street at night (to bring in the town-planning aspect) that included christmas colours, making the image look painterly, adding a bright glow behind the cow and including the phrase "the cattle are lowing..."
the card was printed digitally on gloss stock and came up right nice.
i'm hoping to get a bit more time soon to make some more posts on my blogs... but for now a slacker's post.
here are a couple of videos about 'the house of the future' at disneyland back in the day (found via boingboing - which, by the way, would be the blog to choose if you were going to read just one blog a day). sponsored by monsanto chemicals it was made almost entirely out of plastic. what a safe little world that would be.
part 1:
part 2:
on the headphones: 'go it alone' by beck, from the album 'guero'.
recently when i lost my .com address by being scammed by my america-based web host, i resorted to safelittleworld.co.nz. so i guess you could say that the big bad cyber world was far too dangerous for my safelittleworld. but having the .co.nz instead has ended up feeling like it fits the concept better. and i've begun to realise how much being in new zealand informs that idea.
people create safe worlds for themselves everywhere, but in new zealand it is part of our national psyche. it's a safe haven down in the corner of the world, so near the edge of the map that maybe bad things won't notice us. and our national anthem asks that God will defend us.
i'm also aware that the safe little world concept originally came to mind because i live in tauranga - a safer subset of our already safe nz world. it's a very bourgeois suburban place to live. a very nice place to live - a place that people move to for the lifestyle.
recently, police and anti-terrorist squads raided a number of locations around nz after a year-long investigation into activities that seem to have been aimed against the government and stability of the nation. the full details are yet to emerge. but there is talk of assassination plots, molotov cocktails, arms caches, and guerilla training camps in remote and formidable bush locations. one of these training camps happens to have been set in our province - the bay of plenty.
this is of course troubling news for nzers. but it also demonstrates the paradox of the safe little world concept. the camp in the bush demonstrates both the unsettling nature of social tension in nz and also serves as a metaphor for the fact that in nz the land itself can be a frightening force. the camp was situated in the urewera ranges (pictured) - one of the most remote and untamed parts of nz. i've discussed the threat of the land and nature in nz in an earlier post.
in other safe little world news: i was excited to see that the auckland art gallery have an exhibition opening up called 'making worlds'. from the gallery website:
"Making Worlds looks at the way artists invent worlds of imagination, speculation, wonder and enquiry. Like scientists they research, question and experiment. They imagine things and places. Explaining the world that we know, or that which is beyond, they use models, signs and miniature systems. They describe worlds that make us feel secure and happy, and others, which give us a feeling of dread."
i wish my concept was a bit further along in terms of artistic output, and i wish i was known enough to have been included in that exhibition! it just sounds so spot on - i'm amazed. maybe it demonstrates how universal the concept actually is - and that i've hit upon describing something that is truly archetypal to human existence. gosh, does that make me clever or what?
of course from auckland art gallery's point of view it is a chance to create an exhibition for all the family and encourage kids to interact with art. they are asking people to send in pictures of huts and dens that they've created (with sheets and chairs and things). maybe the opportunity is too good for me to miss... the kid part is all good, because i'm really interested in the make-believe aspect of the safe little world, toys etc. maybe we never stop making-believe.
[picture is of Here and There by morgan jones, from here]
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today i was listening to the latest edition of 'this american life'. it was all about mapping and how we use maps to try and make sense of our world. excitingly this fits in with something i've started doing in my graphic art - incorporating map-like grids as a motif to show interconnection (see one on the temporary splash page of my website).
anyway, on this edition of the podcast they talk to a topographer named denis wood who has been creating all kinds of maps of his neighbourhood for about 25 years. he maps things like the pools of light created by street lights. you can see some of his maps here. great stuff.
"In short, he's creating maps that are more like novels, trying to describe everyday life." read more here.
[picture is a map of phone, cable, and power lines by denis wood, from here]
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that's about the sum of it. i haven't made any more progress on my website relaunch. i've been busy - recently taking on a job in which i work as a photojournalist describing safe little worlds for tourists to visit.
on the headphones: 'take me to the riot' by stars, from the album 'in our bedroom after the war'.
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