I was thinking about Takashi Ishida's video Chair/Screen that I saw last year... It was a beautifully done timelapse video in which a wall was filmed being painted over and over again with geometric and organic shapes.
Then these videos showed up in one of my design portals today... (And the fact that it's real time makes it freakin' amazing.)
I love their style of motion graphics:
http://www.nakd.tv/
While at the Ontario Science Centre last month, I saw this crazy 3D video for the NASA Mars Rovers that should be landing on the surface in January 2004. It's much better watching it in the IMAX theatre with this entertaining guy from the Discovery Channel narrating it but here's the link so you can enjoy it in the comforts of your home. (Note that there's several versions... while I hate RealPlayer, I would watch that one since it's got a music score for it.)
RESFEST, a digital video festival, starts tonight at the Royal Cinema (on College Street in Little Italy) and goes until Sunday. Put on by res magazine, there should be a good mix of stuff.
And so I must add one more movie onto my growing list of 'wow' movies...
After seeing Naqoyqatsi last week, I was pumped to see Koyaanisqatsi (1983) playing at the Royal alongside Baraka (1992) (more info).
Koyaanisqatsi was on first and I couldn't help but think that the movie would probably look the same even if it was filmed today. (Except perhaps more frantic? It's hard to tell because I see Koyaanisqatsi as being very modern but I really can't remember how life was when I was 3 years old.)
Ron Fricke did an amazing job with the photographic directing. If there's one thing that I love about film, it's time elapse scenes. Then also add time elapse to night light and traffic scenes... drool.
And so I wasn't prepared for Baraka... I was recommended Baraka over a year ago and I wish I would have seen it earlier because it was awesome. (And by that, I do mean awesome in that awe-inspiring way... My next mission is to see Baraka on an IMAX screen!)
Very interesting to see how Fricke used some of the same footage used in Koyaanisqatsi but he was really able to revisit it in order to give it a different feel. The time elapse in this film was also much more elegant.
Seeing these two movies in one night totally makes me want to travel and see what's outside my little Canadian bubble. It's a bit crazy how we take our current lifestyles as the only lifestyle.
And so the battle of man vs. technology continues in epic proportions in Godfrey Reggio's Naqoyqatsi...
My first impression of this movie was that it was like a 90 minute After Effects music video. Very breathtaking at some points while also using too many early-90s style computer graphics. (But I forgive Reggio for that since I'm pretty sure that most of the production was done in the early-90s.)
I loved the music so much. I'm going to have to buy the soundtrack. The score was by Philip Glass and Yo-Yo Ma performed the cello solos. Ahhh, so beautiful. I'm kicking myself for not seeing Glass when he performed in Toronto last week!
Some powerful moments:
Statement from Reggio:
"From the p.o.v. of NAQOYQATSI, we do not use technology, we live technology; technology is our way of life. Being sensate entities, we become our environment - we become what we see, what we hear, what we eat, what we smell, what we touch. Where doubt is prohibited, we become, without question, the environment we live in."
Qoute from Ivan Illich:
"To the degree that he masters his tools, [man] can invest the world with his meaning; to the degree he is mastered by his tools, the shape of the tool determines his own self-image."
Also very interesting to read other people's comments on the Naqoyqatsi website in response to Reggio's statement.